"It won’t affect me…" Thousands of people are technically uninsured unless they’ve gone out of their way to ensure otherwise

A tragedy just waiting to happen

Christine Burns wonders how many people may find they have no motor insurance … or no pension … when it comes to the crunch.

June 7th, 1997

Unfortunately there is no delicate way to put this. It’s a fact.

If you’re a transsexual person in Britain and you think any sort of insurance you’ve arranged is OK because nobody ever asked for your legal status when you applied, you are a tragedy waiting to happen.

This is the harsh reality which we are uncovering as we investigate the true implications which the insurance industry’s current practices impose on their transsexual customers.

The scenario is understandable of course. Nobody wants to volunteer such a sensitive piece of information as the fact that they once underwent Gender Confirmation treatment, especially when it’s often arguably irrelevant to the risk the insurance company may be insuring. Yet if the company hasn’t had any reason to ask .. or even if a well-intentioned third party arranging the insurance has said they don’t think it matters .. you are wasting your money and may also be committing a criminal offence (in the case of motor insurance) if you don’t make absolutely certain that the company has had the chance to decide whether your paradoxical legal status matters or not.

And if it’s your pension then you’ll find, when you come to retire, that the company may think it’s being generous just to return your contributions. No exaggeration!

Heads they win .. Tails you lose.

In this special feature section, a sympathetic Independent Financial Advisor, Jim Sealey, explains the harsh realities of life for transsexual people dealing with any sort of insurance, and the steps we are taking with him to try and avert a real tragedy before it happens. And if you have a company-provided car, pension, life insurance or medical plan then you need to talk to your personnel manager too. Some employers, acting in good faith, may never even have imagined that insurance industry attitudes towards transsexualism actually impose an obligation on them to disclose your status to their insurers.

And if you’re in the otherwise happy position that your employers don’t know your medical history either, then please get in touch .. for you represent the key argument in demonstrating the damage which the insurance industry’s attitudes can do. You need not sacrifice your privacy either.

It isn’t all gloom though. One insurance company wants to do the research necessary to convince the industry that a change of gender status, and the surgical and hormonal treatment themselves, aren’t topics they need you to disclose … any more than the fact of having had your tonsils removed.

This won’t happen, however, unless you help us to help them. Until we succeed in this, any other gains we make over your legal status and privacy won’t mean very much either .. for the obligation to disclose your history "just to be on the safe side" will mean that every dealing you ever have with the insurance business will make a mockery of everything we’ve achieved.

The window of opportunity is very short too. Leave getting in touch till the autumn and it will be too late. So please read about the scheme, get in touch with Jim .. who really understands and wants to help .. and then maybe we can all go back to sleeping peacefully again.