New laws
that will change the way you live, work and relax will come into force in the
new year. Some of these were headline news when they were announced, while
others may have passed you by unnoticed. But many of them could have a
permanent, lasting impact on the lives of millions of British citizens.
1.
Stricter immigration rules for working people
You might
think that a nurse who has spent the last decade tending to terminally ill
British citizens would be considered an asset to our society. But under new
legislation that comes into effect from April 2016, she could be deported. If
you come from outside the EU and you’ve been working here for more than five
years, you must be earning more than £35,000 a year, or else you will be
shipped off back to your country of origin.
According
to the Royal College of Nursing, nearly 3,500 nurses could be kicked out of the
country under the legislation, in a move which could end up costing us nearly
£200million. The threshold is far above the average national wage of £22,000.
2. A
higher minimum wage
The minimum
wage for workers over the age of 25 will increase to £7.20 in April 2016, in
the largest real-terms increase since 2007. The increase is part of a move
toward a national minimum wage of £9 per hour by 2020.
However,
the minimum wage still lags far behind the actual wage needed to live in the UK
3.
Gender pay gap in workplaces must be reported
At the
moment, companies only disclose information about their pay gaps on a voluntary
basis, unless forced to do so following an accusation of sexist pay
discrimination being brought against them in court. But new legislation rolling
out in 2016 will force employers to disclose this information each year.
The exact
details of the law are still being finalised, but campaigners are pushing for
this information to be shared with workers and trade unions, rather than buried
in semi-public end-of-year reports. The overall average pay gap between men and
women is currently 19.1%, and amongst part-time workers it is approaching 40%.
4. A
new, flat-rate pension
From April
2016, there will be only a single-tier pension. This will be a flat rate paid
at £155.65 a week. This replaces the current, lower basic state pension of
£115.95, but it also replaces secondary and additional pensions which would
normally enable people to top up the basic rate.
An analysis
by leading actuarial firm Hymans Robertson found that most people would lose
out under the new regulations. Over 20 million workers are likely to be more
than £1000 a year worse off under the new deal, and people who transferred some
of their savings into private schemes for brief periods in the 1980s and 90s
stand to lose as much as £20,000 in total. Though she criticised this
assessment as “scaremongering”, minister Ros Altmann admitted that even the
government projected that 25% of people would be worse off under the new
pension scheme.
5. Smaller
vapes and e-cigarettes
If Britain
The maximum
size of refill containers and cartridges is now being limited (to 10ml for a
refill container and 2ml for the cartridge slotted into the e-cig itself),
while the maximum nicotine strength is being limited to 20mg (about the same as
a strong cigarette). Meanwhile, the EU is reserving the right to ban the
devices outright if three or more member states decide they are harmful enough to
be made illegal. Depending on who you listen to, e-cigs are either a God-given
health tool that could save millions of smokers’ lives or just another
pointless, lethal cash cow for the smoking industry to milk. 2016 could see the
EU making the decision for you.
Source: Independent
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