Support in ill health

We understand that there may be times in your professional life when personal circumstances mean that you find it hard to meet your professional obligations: health issues or other life events can take over and make it hard to prioritise matters such as CPD deadlines, Practising Certificate renewals or renewing your membership subscription.

There are a number of practical ways we can support you through such times, for example:

• Exercising discretion where procedural deadlines are missed by Members suffering from health issues, for example missing the last date for payment of a subscription fee;
• Helping members manage their CPD or their Practising Certificate applications. 

The first step is to get in touch with the Membership Team or by telephone on 0131 240 1325 to explain your situation.

We will appoint a senior member of the team to help you with your regulatory obligations.

Practical examples

Some practical examples to illustrate the support that may be offered by the IFoA:

A non PC-holding Fellow or Associate alerts the Membership Team to the fact he/she will be unable to undertake CPD due to health issues.

During a period of ill health, Members will be treated as being Non-Practising under the CPD Scheme.  They do not need to apply for the status, but  should notify the Membership Team so that we can mark this in their record and confirm their pro-rata requirement, if applicable.

A PC holder advises the Membership Team that he/she expects to be on leave for reasons of health issues for at least 12 months.

PC holders who are absent from work due to ill health are deemed to be Non-Practising members under the CPD Scheme for the period of their absence and should complete CPD on a pro-rata basis.  In terms of the additional CPD requirements under the PC Scheme, these may also be completed on a pro-rata basis. We do ask that members notify us of that status so that we can update their record and confirm their pro-rata requirements.

Advise the Member of the options open to him/her if he/she chooses not to renew his/her certificate when it expires, for example, allowing the certificate to lapse and being able to renew within 18 months of the date of expiry of the previous PC.