M v Revenue & Customs

National Insurance contributions - gender dysphoria - determination of pensionable age � whether possible to interpret �woman� as including person with gender dysphoria living as a woman � whether directly effective right under Directive 79/7 to cease paying contributions otherwise than by satisfying conditions for recognition under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 � Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 ss. 6(3) and 122 and Pensions Act 1995 sched. 4 � Human Rights Act 1998, s. 3 � Directive 79/7 � Gender Recognition Act 2004

Jason Coppel, instructed by the Solicitor for HM Commissioners of Revenue and Customs, for the Respondents

Having regard to the above considerations, the Court finds that the respondent government can no longer claim that the matter falls within their margin of appreciation, save as regards the appropriate means of achieving recognition of the right protected under the Convention .� [Emphasis added]

The Act came into force on 4 April 2005, but until 4 October 2005 applications under it could only be made by people who had been living in their acquired gender for 6 years or more (section 27).� In the meantime, Bellinger had reached the House of Lords ( [2003] UKHL 21 ), which found it impossible to interpret the terms �male� and �female� in section 11 of the 1973 Act as extending beyond biological gender and declared the section incompatible with the Convention.

The appellant�s arguments before the Social Security Commissioners were very similar to her arguments before me; Mr Jason Coppel, who appears for HMRC, invites me to agree with their decision, which is reported as decision R(P) 1/09.� For the appellant, Mr Christopher Stothers says the Commissioners were wrong.