Marriage & The Equality Act

nat_dooley

Good Evening All,
To cut a long story short I am in the process of buying my first house which I will fully own but my partner will live in full time. I work away from home 4 days a week and have just found out that my work will pay for my accommodation at work once I own the house... but only if I’m married! I think this is discriminatory. Having checked the equality act, marriage is a protected characteristic... but only if you’re married! 

So my main point is, how can this be fair? Surely an equality act which protects those who are married over those who are not isn’t very equal? Would be nice to hear people’s thoughts on this 😃
TIA
Nat

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Is this your usual place of work?

BrassicWoman

what is the exact phrase in the accommodation policy please?

pphillips

Yep, being single is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
But not everything that is discriminatory is unlawful.
For example, single people can't expect to have the same tax advantages as married couples.

AskAsk

seems a bit weird that you have to be married.  what is the logic with that??

theoretica

I would guess it is something about single people being able to simply move to where the work is and not need a permanent base somewhere, or maybe hire out their house because it will of course be empty when they aren't there.  When was this policy written?

AskAsk

theoretica said:

I would guess it is something about single people being able to simply move to where the work is and not need a permanent base somewhere, or maybe hire out their house because it will of course be empty when they aren't there.  When was this policy written?

yeah, i did think along these lines that the policy is old fashioned so only assumes that married people will have children and so they can not move nearer to work.  but working away from the office could mean travelling to different locations rather than just one as the OP didn't say a different office location.

old fashioned because people don't always get married anymore and still have a partner and children, so no different with regard to their living situation.

nat_dooley

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth said:

Is this your usual place of work?

Yes it is.

nat_dooley

pphillips said:

Yep, being single is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
But not everything that is discriminatory is unlawful.
For example, single people can't expect to have the same tax advantages as married couples.

That’s something I found in my research. I know I’m not going to be able to change this however found it quite amazing that the ‘equality act’ isn’t equal 🙄😂

nat_dooley

AskAsk said:theoretica said:

I would guess it is something about single people being able to simply move to where the work is and not need a permanent base somewhere, or maybe hire out their house because it will of course be empty when they aren't there.  When was this policy written?

seems a bit weird that you have to be married.  what is the logic with that??

But who is to say that I don’t need a permanent base? Children could be involved etc. I understand that you’re probably implying that this is an old ruling that needs updating. I think that also.

I would also have to prove that I wouldn’t be making a profit from the property. In fact the extreme opposite would apply. We both need out of parents house and I am willing to brunt the cost of this. However I find it extremely unfair that a colleague in the exact same job position as me would be better off financially through the employer simply because they are married. 

I think the ruling is archaic and they just can’t be bothered to change it’s it would be too much hard work.

Comms69

nat_dooley said:

Good Evening All,
To cut a long story short I am in the process of buying my first house which I will fully own but my partner will live in full time. I work away from home 4 days a week and have just found out that my work will pay for my accommodation at work once I own the house... but only if I’m married! I think this is discriminatory. Having checked the equality act, marriage is a protected characteristic... but only if you’re married! 

So my main point is, how can this be fair? Surely an equality act which protects those who are married over those who are not isn’t very equal? Would be nice to hear people’s thoughts on this 😃
TIA
Nat

Literally marriage, not relationship status is a protected characteristic. 

So no. You setting up home is not the same as being married, and not covered.