Let’s get my mother’s wedding dress out of the attic, or perhaps even my dad’s outfit – it may fit me, you never know.  It looks like we’re finally getting somewhere with partnership rights.  The Government has, at last, introduced the landmark Civil Partnership Bill in the House of Lords (published at the end of March).  This is, of course, an historic move that we should applaud, but isn’t total equality.  First of all, we won’t be allowed to call our ‘civil registration’ marriage.  This is going to be reserved for our brothers and sisters of another sexual persuasion.   Secondly, there are some holes in the Bill in terms of taxation issues, like inheritance tax, and, even more importantly, with respect to pensions.  So, what’s going on?

For lesbian couples who choose to register their partnership, there’ll be advantages during the relationship and also after dissolution of the union or on death.  Children of the couple will particularly benefit, and this is obviously a very good thing.  A civil partner of a lesbian mother, for instance, will be able to legally adopt their child under this new landmark legislation.  This will bring much relief to many couples.  Proper dissolution procedures are going to be clearly set up for the courts (heterosexuals call this divorce), and these will be broadly similar to what married couples have to go through.  There’ll be proper maintenance, especially where children are involved, but, similarly right of access for the other partner who may not be the biological mother.  There’ll be other rights, such as the right to hospital visiting and medical treatment.  Even giving evidence in court and prison visiting will be covered by the new partnership law. 

More importantly, if one civil partner dies, then the new law would recognise the right of the surviving partner to be considered automatically as next of kin.  This is particularly reassuring when we look at funeral access or intestacy laws.  For the first time, if a partner dies without a Will, the civil partner will be deemed to be the beneficiary of the estate, unlike the situation today where only blood relatives are recognised.  This is a really important change, as all too often partners forget to make Wills, with devastating consequences on death. Of course, it doesn’t change the fact that everyone should make a Will, whether or not they’re in a long-term relationship.

However, what I am particularly concerned about are our finances. Unfortunately, the Bill remains silent on inheritance tax.  Although it‘s widely expected that the Government is going to deal with this through the budget process next year, at the moment we have no guarantee that it’ll do the right thing.  It’s outrageous that the Bill hasn’t properly addressed this major taxation discrimination issue.  Married couples are exempt from paying inheritance tax on assets they leave to each other, but at the moment same-sex couples have to pay 40% tax on estates worth more than £263,000. This may sound like a lot but don’t forget that it includes the value of your home. You can easily reach this figure if you’ve lived in London for much of your life.

Occupational pension schemes won’t be forced to recognise civil partners in the way that they have to recognise married couples for survivor benefits - this is also wrong.  It’ll confuse pension administrators and will still allow those with homophobic tendencies to discriminate against same-sex couples in their schemes.  The better news is that all major Public Service schemes, such as for the NHS and teachers, as well as the state pension, will see same-sex couples recognised for survivor benefits, but only for years of service starting from the introduction of this Act of Parliament - probably from January 2006.  This isn’t so great as far as pension rights are concerned, and more work is needed to get us real equality.  So, get writing to our MP now - we must continue to lobby the Government hard to get this rectified (see www.gay-partnership-rights.info for details on how to make your voice heard).

For those of us not in long-term relationships, the Bill is unlikely to have a great impact, but you should be aware that there are provisions in the Bill that’ll equalise how Social Security benefits will be assessed.  Benefit agencies and local authorities are going to be able to consider all couples equally in assessing benefits, so two women living together could be caught by the ‘cohabitation’ rules, whether they’ve registered their partnership or not.

The need for independent, gay and lesbian specialist financial advice is going to be greater than ever, especially as I think it will be a surprise if the Bill becomes law under this Parliament.

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Maggie Fleming writes a regular finance column for Diva magazine. If you want to receive a free copy of these articles (produced monthly), leave your email address .