[Mark Crossley]

Recently I wanted to become a member of Rethink, Lee Harrison, Rethinks Regional Manager said I had to join at a cost of £24 and then I was not guaranteed to become a member of the committee, if other people are on very low income how do you feel about being exploited about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Steph Carter from Steps Derby says that we all have to make choices, yes should vulnerable people eat or be a member of Rethink. What do you think?

[Universal Credit]

50p a week isn't much out of the average wage but for service users, many of whom will soon be on a very low income and having to pay top up rent to landlords/bills etc out of this then 50p is quite a lot. There are two tins of soup for 50p at the local supermarket which could mean the difference between going hungry or not for me later on. It is reasonable for the waged to pay the full amount but for the unwaged perhaps sixteen quid a year is more realistic?

[Mark Crossley]

Thank you for replying. I think £5 unwaged is the most one should pay or be able to pay for monthly £2 a month by standing order is more affordable. I wonder if Rethink's decision makers read these posts or not.

[toffee]

I think it is reasonable. I'd rather rethink charged for membership than went out of business altogether.
What I do find annoying though is that they don't have options to pay in advance. For instance I happen to have quite a lot of money at the moment and would quite like to pay up my Rethink memebership for the next 5 years (or if they had a lifetime option) unfortuantely there is no option to do this and when I loose all my benefits in the stupid ATOS process I'm not going to be able to afford it anymore. At the end of the day, the benefitsandwork site offers more urgent value for money.

[mias]

Maybe people should just pay what they can as and when they can. no one would want to bother to be a member of Rethink if they didn't think it a good thing so I guess would happily pay if they could.
What do members get different to non members? does it actually make a difference?

[Mark Crossley]

This does make a difference if you want to join a regional committee, the difference is if you can pay verses you cannot then you are ineligible to be able to stand therefore it is impoverish to charge. Do you agree?

[mias]

I think there should be the choice of payment amount depending on what can be afforded.
I guess this is possibly something that could be brought to Rethinks attention.