Please can someone explain why the GRC process needs to be simpler?

Is there a link somewhere with the details of how many applications are granted / refused?

www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2017-10-06/105995/

Then they need to get a statuary declaration (I.e living in role till they die ect) that costs around £25 to do.

It's £5 flat fee, fixed by law.

It's £140 to submit your application with a fee waiver for low income (yes, you have to fill in a form).

If there's an obvious error with your applicaton the administration team will contact you to rectify before it gets sent to the panel. The panel may also get in touch for further info or evidence. This is why very few applications fail outright. Only if your application is outright refused will you have to pay the fee to apply again.

Yes you may have to pay £80 each for medical reports. Lots of PIP, ESA and UC LCW claimants also have to pay for these to support their appeal when the government have stopped the money they need to live on.

Maybe trans people could fundraise for this instead of taxi fares / reparative pizza and cigarettes

Honestly, reading the section on costs in the consultation document has made me so pissed off.

This is then submitted to a Panal who decides if they are serious about it all 'proving trans enough'. If it's approved then it's issued, if not then well its a no, this costs £240.

It's 140 pounds. And only if you earn over 28,415 pounds a year (threshold may have gone up now as that was in 2012).

www.transitionftmuk.co.uk/downloads/grp-fees.pdf

thatjourno

Paperwork is a necessary evil of modern life. I don;t find it easy myself for health reasosn and Dh is the same. ((Aplos for typing, having toruble today.)

I think that there should be more state assistance for people with disabities inc MH issues where there are difficulties to filling out paperwork (some actual reasonable adjsutments under the EA would be nice!) rather then having to rely on the CAB ect if you have no freinds/family to help, but outside of that, the GRC prwcess is pretty comparable to many otger things..

Rightly or wrongly, you have to take 2 forms of ID just to get a library card these days; one photo, one proof of address... if you aren't a driver you'll prob have to get a passport so you have photo ID.

Most adults will have some kind of bank address in their own name, even if no utilities becasue they rent a room etc. I have had to use bank plus docotr's letter/ benefit letter when we had to live in shared housing so no utilities, so it is not impossible but, yes it maybe takes a bit of effort for some people in certain circs. Again, the CAB/ wlefare rights can advise and no more than you have to do for various other thiggs.

beyondraggedy if the demedicalisation of being trans goes through then a GRC won't help you I am afraid. And they will still make sure you have to spell out difficulties in painful detail becasue of the old chestnut 'it is not your condition, it is how it affects you'. Even for conditions that it is entirely bloody obvious how a person would be affetced.

The fee remission is detailed here www.gov.uk/get-help-with-court-fees and, as I thought, those in receipt of means tested benefits like income related JSA and ESA, Income Support etc, do get automatic 'passporting' to zero fees/ reductions without needing to fill in another form.

Funny how posters like Snappity disappear when you respond with facts (unless it is biology related of course).

Of course, if they actually thought that making a life altering permanent decision such as changing legal sex was more important than changing your photo on Twitter then they might actually have thought that going to see those doctors FIRST was a sensible step.

And as such be well on the way to transition without it being an apparent pain in the backside optional extra that is stopping them from living their life.

Just like, you know, when you do something obviously way more important than change your life forever and go for 2 weeks holiday in Africa and you so see a doctor and, God help you, pay to have any injections they recommend before you set off.

Why is going on vacation for a fortnight more important than changing your gender status forever?

With priorities like that I find the 'onerous' demands of getting a GRC hard to accept as credible reason to abandon them.

The barriers are there for good reason.

If you see a fence and a sign saying no entry without permission, the decent person asks how they might get permission and do what is necessary - and, if they do not qualify, say okay, fair enough.

The people who smash down the fence with a bulldozer and plough on in are not the ones we should be accommodating.

We definitely should not just say - oh well, they don't like the fence and sign, we should take it down and let the world come in.

Their inconvenience matters more than any crooks or vandals who might walk in unhindered and mess up our property.

In any case, thinking that will happen is mean and we have been reassured it has not happened in Argentina so we should shut up.

Well at the moment someone needs to get two medical reports (one being from a doctor who specialises in gender dysphoria) and the person needs to pay for each report (around £80 each), they then need to fill out a wad of paper work detailing a load of things like if they were married, addresses and so on. Then they need to get a statuary declaration (I.e living in role till they die ect) that costs around £25 to do. They also then need to provide two years at least of documentation to prove it all. This is then submitted to a Panal who decides if they are serious about it all 'proving trans enough'. If it's approved then it's issued, if not then well its a no, this costs £240.

Now what it's all about is a lot of trans people find it too costly (lack of income, ect), and also other things a pain such as if a report is wrong then a new one has to be done (another £80 a time) as well as then having to pay the £240 fee again.

This is why a lot of people want reforms of it, just to make it easier such as the Irish system.

"sounds like the process to get a GRC is actually much easier than PIP - once you have the diagnosis it is just paperwork gathering and you have no deadline or loss of income/ home at stake unlike with benefits."

Think you're onto something here.... if I could get a GRC, do you think the DWP would accept that as proof of disability without all of the hoops I usually need to jump through...?

Do you know what, I really hate doing my tax return. I think HMRC is guilty of literal violence and I demand the law is changed to remove the cheating-bastard-phobic provisions that demand we tell the government each year how much we’ve earned.
This could actually become fun

Oh FFS, they have to provide financial information to prove they need a means tested benefit (fee remission) and that is a problem?

I shall be sure to check my privilege the next time I fill in forms related to my son's SN. Or when we search for non-existent or permanently locked disabled toilets. Such a privilege that is.

I shall check my privilege extra carefully when I read articles on the pay gap.

For people whose poor MH makes it difficult to fill out forms etc, there is help available from the CAB and other welfare rights organisations, as frequently relied on by PIP/ ESA applicants.

Not ideal perhaps but help is there and simply having help to fill out a means testing form wouldn't divulge any sensitive info unlike having to have someone help you with a PIP/ESA form which needs to be absolutely explicit in order to make your case.

Also, GRC applicants who would qualify for a fee reduction under means testing are likely to already qualify for, or be already receiving other means tested benefits, as the threshholds are pretty standard across the systems - otherwise how would they be supporting themselves? In which case those means tested benefits could 'passport' them to a free reduction. There would be some who fall through the gap of passporting but they could likely access the CAB for form filling help.

I am familiar with PIP/ESA and fully agree that there need to be checks - the problem with PIP/ESA is more that the DWP try not to accept the evidence they are given, ie they question/ ignore consultants letters etc and rely on their own assessor to 'diagnose' you.

It sounds like the process to get a GRC is actually much easier than PIP - once you have the diagnosis it is just paperwork gathering and you have no deadline or loss of income/ home at stake unlike with benefits.

Also, if you can't get your spouse to agree, then get divorced first. No one should be able to unilaterally vary the terms of the terms of a binding contract (which marriage is); in most if not all other circumstances that would be unfair and illegal.

YY smiths.

Sounds like poor old Anne Boleyn died unnecessarily. If only she had known that gender was assigned at birth she really could have said that Elizabeth was - God be praised! a boy without a winkle, and kept her head.

It's because the fetishists have taken over...they don't suffer from gender dysphoria, hence getting it re-classed so it is no longer a mental health issue and wanting legal rights as women without having to prove that they have it.

I had to take the government to a court of law to get access to the provision my son needed. This lot apparently can’t be expected to fill in a form and find a bank statement.
We’re learning so much about who matters in society, aren’t we?

Dear god they cannot be pretending that’s a serious point?

Or access legal abortion, upstart crow.
No one talking about removal of medical gateways to that.

"They are male but we should call them women because we should. It's really evil of transactivists to take that respect and decency that intersex people need and deserve, and shoehorn it into a screaming tantrum that any regular bloke should be called a woman just on his say-so."

Agreed, I would never be disrespectful of an intersex person, most people wouldn't. Which is part of the reason some people have started to claim that transgender is an intersex condition.

If its going to be easier to change your legal sex than claim Child Benefit for a third child, then there's a problem with people's values.