Lords drop transgender state pension protection

A House of Lords committee yesterday dropped an amendment to the Pensions Bill that would have created protection for transgender people against unfair state pension calculations.

Lord Boswell proposed an amendment saying people who did not benefit from the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (2005) should be treated as though they had been born in their acquired gender when their state pension is calculated.

But he was forced to withdraw the proposal as no agreement could be reached on the issue during the debate.

The Gender Recognition Act introduced gender recognition certificates (GRCs), which, once obtained, mean the individual is treated in all legal matters as though they were born in their acquired gender.

GRCs are only granted to people who have been living in their acquired gender for two years. However, between April and October 2005, only people who had transitioned six years ago could apply for GRCs.

Baroness Drake said the amendment would mainly benefit male-to-female transgendered people.

"A male-to-female transgendered person who turned 60 in 2005 but got a gender recognition certificate only in 2007 would not have received the state pension until they gained the certificate in 2007," she said.

"They feel they lost two years of state pension provision given their acquisition of the female gender."

Lord Freud said there is no "perfect solution" to the problem of providing retrospective pension rights to people who did not benefit from the Act.

He added: "[Retrospective legislation] inevitably results in the complicated business of attempting to reconstruct past entitlements based on the historic circumstances of potential beneficiaries."

Lord Boswell conceded "serial legislation" to deal with each case of affected people was not desirable.