Following a referral from the Supreme Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled in the case of MB v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The CJEU ruled that EU law prevents UK legislation from penalising a woman who was born a man and is still married to a woman from an earlier marriage, by preventing her from claiming her state pension from the earlier female state pension age (‘SPA’).
The individual affected, MB, had been in just this situation. For religious reasons she and her wife had not wanted to get divorced, but this prevented MB from getting a gender recognition certificate, which would be needed to enjoy the then lower SPA for women under UK legislation.