NMC makes ‘difficult decision’
to increase registration fee

• Fee goes up 20% to £120 from March 2015
• NMC accused of ignoring feedback from consultation
• NMC pledges to introduce payment by instalments by 2016
• 70% of nurses don’t claim the tax relief they are entitled to

Nurses are bitterly disappointed at the NMC’s decision to raise the annual registration fee from £100 to £120. As widely predicted, the NMC made the decision at its October Council meeting, after months of consultation that revealed overwhelming opposition to the proposal.

Mark Addison CB, Chair of the NMC, said the decision to increase the fee was ‘difficult’ and assured nurses that the NMC did listen to the responses to the consultation.

He said: ‘We have considered the responses to the consultation in detail and we have listened carefully to the issues raised. We recognise the financial pressures that many nurses and midwives are facing at a time of widespread pay restraint, and the tough and demanding jobs they do. However… our first duty is to ensure the protection of the public.’

But the RCN has accused the regulator of ignoring feedback, and has warned that it will push some nurses into quitting the profession.

RCN Secretary Dr Peter Carter said: ’This is a big blow to nurses and midwives.

‘It means yet more pressure on their personal finances at a time when they are still reeling from the Government’s unfair decision to deny them a cost of living pay rise. The NMC’s move to hike its fees is deeply damaging to nursing morale, which is why the RCN totally opposes this increase.’

He said the RCN had been lobbying for more government support with the cost of the fees, adding: ‘We’ve urged the NMC to investigate alternative solutions which don’t affect hard working nursing staff.’

Dr Carter said: ‘We believe the NMC should pursue alternative funding options instead of expecting some of the lowest paid public sector workers to bear the brunt of its financial problems.

‘In our consultation response we highlighted the multitude of consequences attached to this decision, which include the major issue of nurses and midwives not re-registering or quitting early. We will continue to challenge this decision through our lobbying and campaigning work.’

However, the NMC explained that it had little choice but to increase the fee.

It estimates that the true cost of regulation is £120 per registrant. To charge a lower fee would result in:

• NMC reserves reducing to zero in less than 2 years
• Inability to deal with increasing Fitness to Practise (FtP) cases (expected to increase by 10% a year)
• Throughput of cases would have to be reduced (by the equivalent of 15 hearings per day) and the caseload would never be cleared.
• Waiting times for hearings would increase, with significant adverse effect on all parties.

The consultation on the registration fee elicited only 4,532 responses, significantly fewer than to a similar exercise in 2012 when the registration fee was increased to £100, to which more than 26,000 registrants responded. Of individual respondents, 96% disagreed with the proposed increase, 2% agreed and 2% were not sure.

However, the NMC said increasing the fee was objectively justified: ‘Not to do so would have significant public protection implications.’

But one respondent to the consultation said nurses and midwives were ‘paying for judicial processes and not for advice and guidance to support them in providing high quality care. The regulatory cycle appears to have been overly skewed towards FtP at the expense of other elements.’

Another stated: ‘The fee has already been massively increased over recent years. The basic hardworking, caring, responsible, honest, reliable nurse gets nothing extra for this increase, and [we] have to pay it, there is no other option apart from leaving the profession.’

MITIGATING THE IMPACT

Nurses and midwives can claim tax relief on the registration fee, but an NMC survey in 2013 found that more than 70% of registrants failed to do so, and that 50% were not aware that they could.

The NMC ‘strongly encourages’ registrants to claim this tax relief, to mitigate the burden of the fee. If the fee were raised to £120, a claim for tax relief would reduce this to £96 (and less for higher-rate taxpayers). In practice this would mean an increase of £16, from £80 to £96, after tax relief.

The NMC has also made a commitment to introduce payment of the registration fee by instalments, to be implemented by 2016.