Sex change woman wins right to pension at 60

A woman who had a sex-change operation 10 years ago has won her battle to receive a pension from the age of 60.

Christine Timbrell was born Christopher Timbrell in 1941, but had surgery to change her gender in 2000, the Guardian reports.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said Timbrell could not claim her pension, because she had not divorced her wife, Joy, and her new gender status was not recognised in law.

Timbrell's sex-change operation was carried out with the knowledge and consent of her wife and they continue to live together as a married couple, and have two children.

She applied to the HMRC national insurance contributions office for her state pension in 2002, which she asked to be backdated to her 60th birthday, a year earlier.

But she was refused because under the 2004 Gender Recognition Act the new sex of married transsexuals is only recognised if their marriages are annulled or dissolved.

Timbrell, an accountant from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, took her case to the Court of Appeal after the DWP said she was entitled to a state pension from the age of 65, the usual age for a man.

Marie-Eleni Demetriou, representing Timbrell at a hearing in March, said the rule under the act that she must end her marriage for her gender to be recognised was a "disproportionate" violation of her human rights to respect for her home and family life.

Jeremy Johnson, for the DWP, recognised the "harsh choice" Timbrell faced in whether to end her happy marriage, but insisted she was a male in law, and as such was only entitled to a pension at 65.

Lord Justice Aikens, giving the ruling of the three appeal judges, said before the Gender Recognition Act, English law had no way of dealing with a person who had changed gender, meaning "once a man, always a man".

But he said a lack of legal framework to allow the law to recognise gender change and obtain a pension was discrimination.

The judge said this meant the DWP could not deny Timbrell the right to a pension as a woman from her 60th birthday.