Gender-diverse students 'could face delays to Centrelink payments'

Non-binary and gender-diverse students who receive the youth allowance have been warned their payments may be cut off because Centrelink’s internal system only allows for male or female.

Affected students say the disruption occurs when university enrolment forms – which commonly provide a third option such as “unspecified” – come up against Centrelink services.

“They called to say they’ve been trying to confirm whether I’m a student for the last month but every week they get a response that no student matches those details,” said Alex, a non-binary student at the University of Sydney who spoke on the condition that a pseudonym was used.

“It’s real bullshit for a few reasons. Why does gender need to come into it? My name, address and student ID all match.”

Multiple universities across Australia allow students to register their gender as “unspecified” or “other”, including the University of Melbourne, Australian National University, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland and University of Adelaide.

Australian government guidelines released in 2013 also suggest to departments that “where sex and/or gender information is collected … individuals should be given the option to select M (male), F (female) or X (Indeterminate/Intersex/Unspecified).”

“I asked the person on the phone if she could update my gender on the Centrelink systems to match my enrolment and she said, ‘The current software means that isn’t possible,’” Alex said.

Centrelink’s website tells applicants their personal records system only allows male or female gender markers: “If you identify as a non-binary gender, we can only add a note to your personal record.”

Alex said Centrelink staff had not informed them about adding a note, or any other way around the problem. “No one seems to know how to handle this sort of thing. Everyone has systems in place but no one knows how to use them or is trained in it. This stuff is super common, to be honest – it’s annoying and tiring but unsurprising.”

Monash University’s student form advises that “making a change [in gender marker] at the university may have unexpected negative consequences. For example Centrelink payments of student support may be interrupted if university records no longer match your records with Centrelink.”

Eloise Brook of the Gender Centre said: “If a system can’t recognise a non-binary person, it’s not just about having someone’s feelings hurt – it’s about how they will access housing, services, how they will study if they can’t get into the system. It’s a good micro example of a macro situation. Gender marker changes are essential to ordinary life, to do all the things you do to participate in society.”

The executive director of Transgender Victoria, Sally Goldner, said: “If other government agencies have done it, I don’t understand why it would be that hard for Centrelink to do it.

“The sex and gender guidelines were introduced for all government departments in mid-2013, so they’re clearly way overdue. It would also help data collection on all sorts of stuff, we could find out unemployment rates for non-binary people, which we have always suspected are much higher. There are a lot of benefits for society as a whole. It was trans day of visibility last Friday – let’s get done what needs to be done.”

Another non-binary applicant told Guardian Australia they found the process of registering their gender with Centrelink daunting. “I’m applying for the disability pension and I filled out their form with just male or female options, and I wrote next to it that I am non-binary,” they said. “Hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me. People like me didn’t get a choice as to what they put on our birth certificate, but we’re still having to play by rules that define us.”

The University of Sydney said it had provided gender-neutral enrolment options for more than a year. “The University supports the use of the gender ’X’ as an important option for students who do not exclusively identify as either male or female,” it said. “It complies with Australian government requirements regarding the classification of sex and gender and matches the current recording systems used by the Universities Admissions Centre.”

Youth allowance is available to full-time students or apprentices under 24, or those under 21 who are looking for full-time work. The payments are means-tested and are capped if students earn a certain amount in income.

The general manager of the Department of Human Services, Hank Jongen, said Centrelink was committed to the government’s gender guidelines “in full” but it was a work in progress.

“The department recognises that individuals should have the option of selecting a male (M), female (F) or non-binary (X) gender value,” he said. “Because of the scale and complexities around the department’s forms and ageing IT systems, changes are being made progressively as part of a multi-year project.

“A person’s eligibility for social security payments is not conditional on their gender. The department does not cancel payments to recipients because they do not identify as either male or female.”