I really hate to be that person. Discrimination?

[Theredfoxfliesatmidnight]

I really hate to be the person drawing attention to this; for the record I believe men and women are equal, and I believe almost all UK employers believe this too. I may be wrong, I don't know, and am happy to be corrected by anyone with professional or first hand knowledge of this situation.

I, a female, recently went for a job in a traditionally male environment. The people on the shop floor that I interviewed with were very nice and very open; they made a point of not discriminating against females, which proved correct as they hired me, a woman amongst many males.

I was offered the job and accepted. I was very happy. I provided my British passport (I was born in the UK and have always lived here) and a NI letter giving my full National Insurance details.

Because I was married and divorced 25 years ago my HMRC NI letter is in my married surname. It gives exactly the same identity details; ie same address, same first name and middle name. Just married surname. These are the detais HMRC hold for me. I don't have HMRC letters in my maiden name as I changed it in 1999.

My UK passport gives my maiden name plus of course all other passport details including date and place of birth.

Despite these being true and accurate UK documents this place of work (a famous large UK business) will not accept them. I have to send in my marriage certificate (from 1999 ) to prove I am who I say I am. Annoying; but I get this, sort of. Apart from the fact I was divorced over 20 years ago. So now I have to get this (because I don't have this document ) and send it to them, never mind that I've never had to do this before for any other job, or to get UC which I do claim, or for banking, or to get in out of the country, or for anything else. I am 46.

But this is not enough. Now I have to send my birth certificate (a UK birth cert. They already have my passport showing these details). Plus something from HMRC with my maiden name on (which I don't have; all documents are in my married name from when I got married in 1999) No start date can be given until I provide these documents at my own expense.

I have said I have bank documents, bank cards, and Universal Credit documents all showing Maiden Name as claimant and Married Name as payee. I am a British citizen, always have been since birth and this fact is not in dispute. The offer of these documents has been refused as evidence.

I am irritated because I have provided a legitimate, genuine UK passport. And a legitimate, genuine, NI letter from HMRC with my birth date, address and name on it. This more than fulfils the Evidence to Work documentation they need. But now I have to pay to get my marriage certificate (£12.99 at my own expense) and a copy of my UK birth certificate) before I can even get a start date. I was meant to start on Monday but because they've now come up with this I have no determined start date.Is this fair? I feel that married men wouldn't have to provide their UK birth certificate if they have already provided a UK passsport .

Am I right to be pissed or is this standard procedure?

Surely your passport is out of date if it was issued in 1999?

I haven't read everyone's responses so I could be duplicating.

Surely the decree absolute (or its new name) is sufficient, OR your marriage certificate. If you have either of those then that will legally explain your change of name.

This is just wot i think but it sounds more like a case of indirect discrimination to me. Presumably the document requirements are the same for all candidates, however this practice will primarily impact women.

It's certainly not unreasonable to want to verify your identity if you're using two different names (or have done such that there's an obvious discrepancy). I would have thought that your marriage certificate should suffice.

It’s so ridiculous. My HR and IT departments cannot get their heads around my seemingly unique decision to use my birth surname for work and my married surname outside work, and every time I ask them to put the correct name on my pension, they try and change my email address. I’ve stopped asking. Ironically, they are mega keen to ensure that nobody inadvertently misgenders me, and I get regular reminders to provide my pronouns.

😣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

sounds like they’ll be dodging a bullet.

It isn't discrimination as op has not suffered a detriment due to being female. The job is there for her if she can provide evidence that satisfies their checks.

It is a little unusual for someone to not have a marriage cert. If I asked someone to provide theirs to confirm the reasons for the name discrepancy and they sent me everything but the document legally required, especially as the info about RTW checks is so freely available, (and if they made a bit of a fuss about it - again not saying thats the case) then yes my suspicions might be raised enough to want to carry out further checks.

Indeed. I’ve never needed to supply a letter from HMRC or birth cert.

One issue is that you can just change your name in the UK, if you are not doing it for fraudulent purposes. If I decided I wanted to be called Elephant Potato, I could, as long as everyone agrees. It's probably difficult to get banks etc to update their records if you don't do it by deed poll, but it is meant to be possible. And plenty of people - actors and authors- have more than one name. It's not unusual for women to keep their first surname for work,their married one outside. I do know a man who changed his name to his wife's on marriage, but anyone can just decide to change their name if they want.

These days, it probably is a right faff paperwork-wise if you just decide it so don't have any sort of certificate, mind you.

Hello, my husband went through this exact thing. He has a long doubled barrelled surname which he changed to use a shorter version after we married, but some of his official docs still have his full surname. He had to provide all sorts of additional documents at his new job - which requires more security and safeguarding checks than any other job he's had, he's also never had this issue before.

So unless my husband has been keeping something very, very big from me for 18 years, it's just silly bureaucracy and nothing to do with you being a woman.

I get it's annoying but I'd rather have an employer that is thorough in checks than not. As a contractor I work for two different places and the one who is lax is lax in many bureaucracy issues and they're a total pain.

Also it's really not your future employers fault you don't already have your own birth certificate. Given the position you're in now it's not a bad thing that you will have it for future requirements.

I don't think this is a sexism issue even though it is an issue that will affect women more. Your IDs just need to be matched up.

I had to re-apply for a DBS because I used a title other than Mrs or Miss but I hadn't said whether I had ever had another name.
I bet a man wouldn't have to do that.

See my note above. The fact I didn't change my name but am married caused me hassle this week. No one questioned DH's marital status for having a different surname from me. I had to prove my marital status for having a different surname from him. His financial instruction was approved. My identical one was not.