I seem to recall somewhere about, that someone had tried this argument. If it is possible to change gender then can a man register as a woman and thus retire earlier? Given that pension ages are now equalised in the UK this might not matter but I do think I’ve seen something about someone trying it on, somewhere.
The other thing. Annuity rates differ by sex, don’t they? So, can a woman register as a man and gain the higher rate given shorter expected lifespan?
For it’s not entirely obvious that the whole system is exactly prepared for this possible change in law.
For example, the EU simply demanded that car insurance rates be equalised. Young birds ended up paying the average of birds and blokes – much higher. And haven’t they tried something or other about pensions?
And wasn’t there a policeman who, at 70 or 80, married some 20-ish bird so she could gain his widow’s pension – very good, police pensions – for life?
This all prompted by Martin D writing in.
The underlying being, well, are there niches where a sex change registration would be financially beneficial and so will people do it, could they, for that benefit?
Perhaps you could game gender pay gap audits like this: before the audit, get all the highly paid men to self declare as female. This will result in the audit saying women in the organisation are paid more than men. Then declare that you are a man again and demand a pay rise in the name of equality.
I/T, but I can’t wait to see the trans lobby tacking this one:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/18/legal-experts-call-for-new-uk-offence-of-inducing-sexual-activity-by-deception
‘You said you were a bird, I’m calling the cops!’
legal-experts-call-for-new-uk-offence-of-inducing-sexual-activity-by-deception
Crikey! They’re going to make wearing a Wonderbra a criminal offence?
You’ve got a point, BiS. Clearly all birds should now go around dressed in mother hubbards. Or maybe burqas.
“so will people do it, could they, for that benefit?”
Quite likely pointing out the obvious, but…. Some chancers most certainly will.
I will present the case of a certain fictitious rockstar in a rather famous book/radio play/film who had declared himself dead for tax reasons.
And that was satire to point out the lengths people go to, just to…
> For example, the EU simply demanded that car insurance rates be equalised. Young birds ended up paying the average of birds and blokes – much higher.
Are you sure that’s true? E.g. https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2017/jan/14/eu-gender-ruling-car-insurance-inequality-worse
“young”
The last living widow of a veteran of the US Civil War of 1860-1865 passed away in 2020, having drawn her widow’s pension for something like 70 years.
llater,
llamas
The examples given can already occur under the current GRC rules written into the 2004 GRA. Unsurprisingly the there hasn’t been any major explosion in cases or problems arising.
To cite Lord Faulkner, the minuscule extra number of cases involved because of the GRR bill aren’t of sufficient import to justify any action such as invoking S35 of the Scotland Act.
https://twitter.com/lordcfalconer/status/1615400867015819278?s=61&t=gztSZe3qmkNxUDpXc0JDsA
“Annuity rates differ by sex, don’t they?” They used to. Has it been banned yet?
Anyway, since we are vaguely on the topic, I assumed at the time that the pressure for gay marriage/civil partnership was partly a pressure to get a route for avoiding inheritance tax.
@dearieme
For over 10 years, it’s been illegal to offer different insurance rates for men and women. An utterly ludicrous ruling (one of many) from the EU. So men pay more for annuities and women pay more for car insurance, etc.
I’d like to think we could get rid of this in the bonfire of EU regulations, but I suspect by the time it happens we’ll all be able to declare our sex to be whatever we want it to be, including varying it by time of day.