Same-sex couples who are learning a harsh lesson

Same-sex couples who are learning a harsh lesson

New gay "marriage" rules will give homosexuals full equality with married couples on issues such as pensions or inheritance. Or will they? One gay reader with 32 years teaching service was shocked to find that if he dies his partner will only receive a survivor's pension worth little more than half that awarded to wives of married colleagues with the same amount of years in the classroom.

Guardian Money investigated and found the Teachers' Pension Scheme is not so blatantly unfair as it first appears. But we did find that long-serving lesbian and gay teachers who are planning to register a same-sex relationship after civil partnerships get legal status in December, will have just six months after their "marriage" if they want to take advantage of certain new pension rights.

The Civil Partnership Act, effective from December 5 2005, is intended to give same-sex couples, who register as civil partners, similar rights and responsibilities to married couples.

If a registered civil partner dies and is a member of a public sector or a contracted-out occupational pension scheme, their surviving partner should be entitled to similar pension benefits to those of a surviving spouse.

In the case of the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS), the second largest public sector scheme in England and Wales with 1.4 million members, most married teachers are entitled to a long-term pension paid to their widow or widower in the event of their death.

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historical reasons, if a married male teacher dies, all his service dating back to April 1 1972 automatically counts towards calculation of his widow's pension. But if a married female teacher dies only her service since April 6 1988 counts towards calculation of her widower's pension.

When the TPS scheme rules change in December, civil partner members will be entitled to a surviving partner pensions based on service since April 6 1988 - the same as married female teachers, but not married males.

This appears bizarrely unfair, not only to married female teachers but to newly-registered gay civil partners, whatever their sex and can only be explained by the inherent sexism of our forebears. From 1972 teachers - but only males - got automatic entitlement to a spouse's pension, notionally paid for by their employer. Female teachers could opt to get this benefit only if they could prove their husband was financially dependent upon them.

"Pension schemes reflect society and remember you are going back to a time when men were viewed as breadwinners, not women," says Des Hamilton, technical director of the Pensions Advisory Service.

In 1988 new sex equalisation requirements affected pension schemes across the board and, for the first time, all married teachers became entitled to a spouse's pension based on service from April 6 1988 as a benefit within their normal contributions to the TPS.

If a married female teacher wanted pre-1988 service taken into account for a spouse's pension purposes, she could opt to pay extra to "buy back" those years. This right still exists provided the member takes up that option within six months of her marriage.