Bedroom entitlement and gender

[hungryhippie]

Im just running a benefits calculation, taking into account a potential new job and this question came up with regards to the kids:

Childs Gender
We need to know your child's gender to work out how many bedrooms your household needs.If you don't yet know the gender of an expected child, please select female or male. This might affect your bedroom entitlement.

I wonder what would happen if your child identified as another 'gender' and whether or not people could potentially use that i their favour to get around the bedroom tax rules?

I don't see why not.
I take it they won't put boys and girls together?
Do they check the gender?
I bet you it would work, or they could be taken to court for discrimination.

They ought to be asking for children's sex.

As far as I am concerned, 'gender' has no place on official forms.

Yes deydodo they wont put boys and girls together after a certain age. Think its teenagers.

It's a load of rubbish. They mean sex and they should say it. AFAIK children of different SEXES are not expected to share a room above a certain age (8?). Because, SAFEGUARDING. So saying gender instead of sex opens the door not just to people getting around the bedroom tax, but worse, meaning that children of different sexes are expected to share rooms beyond an appropriate age, potentially through adolescence. And it means that DWP could reduce a family's bedroom entitlement to below what it should be.

I love my brother dearly but the 16 year old me would not have wanted to share a bedroom with him.

I would raise this with them, OP.

Just for clarification, the form im filling in is on Entitledto.co.uk so im not sure how the question is on local council housing benefit forms.

Oh dear, they really haven’t thought this one through have they?
Just imagine what will happen when every low income family in the land start having children who identify as different genders, and councils are forced to find bigger and bigger houses to accommodate them, and pay out more housing benefit to support their families.
I might tell them DS is gender fluid and that he needs one pink bedroom and one blue bedroom for his girl and boy days. I can’t be expected to redecorate three times a week, and how dare they not respect his gender identity?
We really are headed deep, deep down the rabbit hole with all this.

Oh God, just realised I accidentally misgendered my own child there.

I would put down that the, for example, two children are of the female sex, but identifies as a boy. Then just sit back and let the silly parts work that one out. You’ll have the realists saying they can share a room, while the ‘woke’ bunch will be rocking back and forth in the corner. 😁 Go on. I dare you. You could get great mileage out of this and it might actually show some of the wine ones what a load of old bollocks this is.

*woke not wine. 😬

One identifies as a boy. goes if to have a coffee

goes if to have a coffee

If you have five children can they each have a different ‘gender’ thus entitling you to a six bedroom house?

Could play the system to point out how fucking ludicrous it is.

Sounds absurd doesn't it.

But there could be serious implications for families with step siblings where a child may be saying they are trans.

I don't think the letter of the law would allow a 14 year od boy to identify as a girl and then be forced to share with their step sibling who is a 12 year old natal girl in terms of bedroom requirements..

But yes the woke and criminally thick in some departments might try to enforce gender identity over sex, even though gender reassignment applies to over 18s only.

More important safegaurding issues to be addressed

Forcing the natal girl to share I should have worded it as - I am more concerned with the natal girl's safety and risk of preganancy etc, a articular difficulty with step siblings.

Dd had to fill a form in at college and it asked for gender

I said...you should cross that out and put sex

And she said....but some people are transgender and they wont have a box if it asks sex

I was

This whole gender thing is pissing me off...it didnt matter when gender was just a dumb way of saying sex, but I suppose thats how it crept in

But in regard to the OP, yes it is a way of getting round the bedroom tax and mixing the sexes. Do thses people not THINK

So transgender people don’t also have a sex?
We do have a generation of seriously confused young people.

I didnt think she was confused hotrocker

Til yesterday

Ill keep working on her

I don't see this is an issuse of gender, just a poor terminonology on the form. Does it have the the option of male/female/other or male/female? If the later surely it's obvious they mean sex (gender and sex used by many interchangeably). The argument for children's rooms being based on gender is a whole different argument but I suspect this is not the case in this instant, just poor terminology.

There is no excuse for poor terminology. Using one word instead of another that means something completely different is unacceptable on an official document. One couldn’t start using Tuesday instead of Thursday because you know what you mean, because it’s incorrect, and people will get confused. The words are there, we have the language, and using incorrect language when perfectly clear, socially recognisable, functional language exists is stupid, misleading, and disingenuous.

And if I were to use inaccurate, self identified language in say my PIP claim, I’d soon get pulled up for it and probably face sanctions or lose my benefit all together.

Totally agree it's amazing that such a gaff should be on the form and needs correcting. Either to ask which sex m/f (which I'm sure is what they want) or if indeed they do want gender amend it to represent the multiplicity of genders. As the current wording could lead to parents making genuine mistakes on the forms.

I might tell them DS is gender fluid and that he needs one pink bedroom and one blue bedroom for his girl and boy days. I can’t be expected to redecorate three times a week, and how dare they not respect his gender identity?

God, I hope someone does that.

In terms of the benifits if I am right there is not gender issuse here, just poorly worded paperwork technically asking a different question than wanted?

bitheby