Lloyds’ private health cover to fund sex changes for staff

LLOYDS Banking Group is to offer sex change operations to its transgender workers as part of its private health scheme.

It is believed to be the first British employer to extend its cover to include gender reassignment surgery.

The group, which includes Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows, received a £20.5billion state-funded bailout during the financial crisis, and is still 9 per cent owned by the taxpayer.

Lloyds said that the move would not mean any additional cost to the group.

A spokesman added: ‘This announcement is simply extending the scheme to provide increasing and inclusive support. The health and wellbeing of all our colleagues is of utmost importance to the group and we are committed to providing them with increasing and inclusive support.’

Gender reassignment surgery typically costs around £10,000, although ongoing hormone treatment and counselling can vary costs considerably.

Treatment for gender dysphoria – in which a person suffers distress because they do not identify with their biological sex – will also be included in the Lloyds Bupa scheme.

Karin Cook, the group’s director of operations, told the PinkNews website: ‘We want to be inclusive to all colleagues and we felt that our current healthcare provision was excluding certain conditions which were very important to people, particularly in the support for some of the mental health issues that colleagues suffer.

‘So it was essential that we were able to extend that to cover to people with gender dysphoria.’

Kimberley Bird, co-chair of the banking group’s 3,000-strong network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff, said that she believed other employers would follow suit.

She added: ‘Personally I am proud to work for an organisation that just wants to be inclusive. I do think other organisations will follow quite quickly and it will just change lives.’

Estimates suggest around 1 per cent of the population experiences transgender feelings although only 0.2 per cent are thought to be likely to seek any form of related medical help.

The number of youngsters having treatment because they believe they were born the wrong gender has risen by nearly 1,000 per cent in five years.

The NHS’s gender identity development service treated 1,013 children between April and December last year, at a cost to the taxpayer of almost £2.7million.

That was up from just 97 in 2009-10. The dramatic rise was attributed to increased awareness and media coverage.

Gender reassignment surgery is not available for children. However in some cases youngsters may be given hormone blocking treatments.

Lloyds Banking Group has been named as the top private sector employer for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees by the campaign group Stonewall.

It announced recently that it would allow its customers to choose which gender was included in their account details, without the need to prove their legal status. The group also said it would allow customers to hold cards for both genders if they did not identify solely as male or female.

‘Just wants to be inclusive’