CIVIL PARTNERSHIP ACT - GREENS URGE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN FOR SAME SEX BENEFITS REGIME

Commenting on the opening of the Civil Partnership Register Nigel Tart National LGBT Spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales said:

"The Civil Partnership Act which came into force this week is a historic step forward for lesbian and gay rights and we should all celebrate the joy of shortly-to-be-formed legally binding unions. But this is not full marriage, which the law forbids for same sex partners, and the Green Party will continue to campaign for full marriage equality.

"We should not forget that the legislation also heralds a new system for calculating benefits and tax credits for same sex partners - whether or not they are married. In most cases cohabiting same sex partners will see a reduction in income if they are on state benefits as their income will be calculated jointly, which was not the case before the partnership legislation. Many thousands of same sex partners will be affected and many wrongly believe that it is only those couples who enter into a legal partnership who will be affected. Awareness of this problem seems very low.

Mr Tart added: "We need a sustained and wide spread investment by the Government in communicating the real impact of the new regime yet so far the Government's response has been half-hearted and inadequate to the scale of the task, earmarking only £100,000 for the entire communications campaign budget for the UK. We also think it would appropriate for the Government to allow a period of grace before any new assessment of benefits takes effect. So far this has not been promised."

Courtesy of the Green Party England and Wales