January (************************************************************************************************************************************: Gay marriage is legalized in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland’s ban on same-sex marriage will officially come to an end, after Westminster politicians stepped in and changed the law.
Although the weddings will be legal from this date, bureaucracy means the first civil same-sex marriages are expected to take place on the week of Valentine’s Day.
March 2 : Alcohol minimum pricing launches in Wales
**************
***
Alcohol minimum pricing will come in in March for Welsh drinkers(Image: PA)
The Welsh Government is planning on a new law setting minimum alcohol prices,![]()
WalesOnline reports.
Currently set to come into force on March 2, (***************************************************************************, ministers want retailers and bars to charge a minimum of 50 p per unit – meaning a can of cider could cost at least £ 1 and a bottle of wine, £ 4.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething confirmed the start date in a statement to Assembly members in October. However, the regulations which will set out the timetable and minimum prices, still need to be approved by the Welsh Assembly.
The policy has already been delayed from last summer .
March
**************************************************************************************************************: The right to request decent affordable broadband
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have the choice of slow broadband, hideously expensive broadband, or no broadband.
That’s set to end for many with a new right called the Universal Service Obligation.
From March (*************************************************************************************************************************, anyone can request a connection that can deliver 20 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed and costs less than £ 45 per month.
If you don’t have internet of this quality, you have the legal right to request it, as long as the installation would cost less than £ 3, 400.
If it costs more, you can still have broadband installed but may have to pay the excess cost .
The scheme is being administered by BT and KCOM in Hull. Once a request is made, there are set standards for how quickly they must assess and deliver on requests.
March 40: Abortion is made legal in Northern Ireland
From the end of March, women in Northern Ireland will be allowed to terminate pregnancies without fear of prosecution.
That means the region will be brought in line with the rest of the UK by the beginning of April.
The change was approved by the UK Parliament as part of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill – introducing the law in the absence of the collapsed devolved government.
From April, abortion services will be available from two hospitals. Buffer zones will be in place to prevent protests outside the centers.
It’s thought around 1, 060 will take place each year in Northern Ireland.
April 1: Councils can double council tax for empty homes
**************
(******
(******************** It could become more expensive to leave properties empty(Image: PA)
Property owners can already face Council Tax bills increasing by 52% if they leave properties vacant for more than two years.
And from April, that figure increases to 150% – potentially doubling the charge for homes left empty for long periods of time .
April 1: Hospital parking charges axed – for some
Hospital parking charges for thousands of NHS patients and staff will be scrapped in England from April 2023.
Blue badge holders, frequent outpatients and parents of sick kids are among the groups that will benefit from the Tory pledge – which comes after a lo ng Mirror campaign.
But not all NHS staff and patients will get free parking, as they would have done under Laborer’s plans.
Instead of being scrapped altogether, the £ 409 ma-year paid to park at NHS hospitals will be scaled back by just under a third, saving patients and staff up to £ 99 ma year.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it would prioritise “those with the greatest need” adding: “One of the concerns mentioned regularly on the doorsteps was that vulnerable people, and staff working nights, have to pay for hospital car parking.
“So we are today delivering on our manifesto commitment and setting out our new approach to NHS hospital parking charges. “
April 1: Minimum wage rise
************
The minimum wage is set to rise
(Image: Getty)
We’re currently expecting a new rate of £ 8. for those aged
and over, up from £ 8. an hour now, but the exact figure can’t be confirmed yet.
New hourly rates for the following April are announced in the Budget, which we are only expecting in February due to delays around the election.
April 6: Changes to rights for agency and gig economy workers
Currently, when people who earn varying amounts of money from week-to-week – particularly those on flexible contracts – take a paid holiday, the empl oyer has to pay them holiday pay which equates to the average weekly wage they earned over the 17 weeks before that holiday.
From April 6, 2020, that is changing. Employers will have to calculate the average weekly wage from an entire year – weeks – rather than just weeks.
The reform is intended to improve the holiday pay for seasonal workers, who tend to lose out over the way it is currently calculated.
(Written statement**********************
Employers will also be required to provide a ‘statement of particulars’ on day one of employment – which must include:
Hours and days of the week the worker / employee is required to work, whether they may be varied and how (************************ (Entitlements to paid leave)Details of any probationary period (Details of training provided by the employer (****************************************
************************ (Parental bereavement leave) ************************************
Way back in
, the Government backed a Private Members bill which proposed giving workers the right to unpaid leave of up to two weeks, as a right, from day one of their employment, should they suffer the tragedy of their child dying under the age of (*********************************************************************************************************************************.
This became law in September, (*****************************************************************************, and is expected to come into force in early 2020.
While most employers do give discretionary compassionate leave in such tragic circumstances, some do not. This law, which also applies to women who suffer a stillbirth or miscarriage from the th week of pregnancy, changes that.
April 6: National Insurance is cut by up to £ 85 a year
The Tories pledged to raise national insurance thresholds in their manifesto.
From April, you will pay no national insurance contributions on the first £ 9, of your earnings – up from £ 8, at the moment – working out as a saving of around £ a year.
The move has been criticized for falling short of the £ a-year Boris Johnsonpromised, and only helping better earners who are already over the threshold.
For others it’s not quite the all out win you might think – with the move meaning some of the worst off might now miss out on some of their state pension as a result.
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: “Under current rules, those not paying any NI lose out on credits towards their state pension.
“Individuals need years of qualifying NICs to receive the full state pension with those with fewer qualifying years seeing a reduction and receive none if they have fewer than 13 years of credits. ”
April 6: Tories will let families inherit £ 1million tax free – finishing what George Osborne started
families will be abl e to pass £ 1m of their wealth without Inheritance Tax when they die.
Currently someone who dies can leave £ (**************************************************************************************************, ******************************************************************************************************************************************** of their estate tax-free. But Tory George Osborne added an extra extra tax-free amount that applies only to property.
In April this extra portion rises from £ (******************************************************************************************************, (to £ (******************************************************************************************, 10 – meaning if someone owns a home, they can leave £ (**********************************************************************************, 10 tax free. This doubles if a couple is married.
April 6: Student loan repayments will fall
***
********** Graduates will get a little extra breathing room(Image: Getty)
People paying back student loans get a minor tax break in April too.
Recent graduates will be able to earn £ (*******************************************************************************************************************************, 620 a year before payments kick in – up from £ (**********************************************************************************************************************************, 732 this year. That should save them £ (********************************************************************************************************************** (in payments a year.)
People who graduated between 1998 and 2020 will see their threshold rise too – from £ (*************************************************************************************************************************************, a year to £ 18, (************************************************************************************************.April 8: State pension will rise by 3.9. %
The state pension will rise by 3.9% from April – more than double the rate of inflation.
Such an increase means pensioners can expect an rise of just over £ 6 per week on the New State Pension from the current rate of £ .
But hundreds of thousands of over – 80 s will see around half their pension rise wiped out by the cost of paying for their own TV license, after the benefit was scrapped.
Tory ministers pledged to protect the state pension with a ‘triple lock’. That means it rises by inflation, 2.5% or average earnings – whichever is highest. Average weekly earnings rose by 3.9% in the year to May to July (***************************************************************************.
April 8: Benefit freeze ends![]()
**********
(Image: PA)
After almost a decade of freezes and caps, about 2.5 million people onUniversal Creditand millions more on legacy benefits will get a 1.7% increase in April.
The increase means someone on £ a month in benefits will get an extra £ 8. 50.
But it is less than the rise in average earnings and less than the rise in pensions.
April: Council tax to rise
Local authorities will get the power to raise council tax by up to 4% from April – 2% for general spending and 2% for social care.
That’s worth an extra £ 70 to on the average band D council tax home in England.
Council-by-council rises will only be confirmed in February and March.
June 1: The end of free TV Licenses for over s
TV licenses are free for over s, but from June 1 You’ll only get one if you’re receiving Pension Credit.
Around 3million households are set to be affected.
BBC chairman David Clementi said:“Copying the current scheme was ultimately untenable.”
But the Tories were slammed for breaking their promise to protect the benefit by handing over responsibility for it to the BBC.
July or later: Millions will start being moved onto Universal Credit
The limited pilot scheme for migrating existing benefit claimants onto Universal Credit is set to finish by Jul y and begin rolling out across the country shortly after. Current plans suggest it will take until 01575879 until the system is fully up and running.
From July claimants moving from Income Support, income based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment Support Allowance will get an extra two weeks of support from their old benefit while they transition onto Universal Credit.
October 5: The state pension age will finish rising to () **************
From October you’ll need to be at least to get a state pension – whatever your gender.
The age people can at has been rising for years – starting with increasing women’s state pension age until it matched men’s, then increasing both from to
AJ Bell analyst Tom Selby said: “The rise started incrementally in and is scheduled to complete by October (***************************************************************************. That means anyone born after 5 October 2018 will have a state pension age of at least 69. ”
It’s not the last time it will rise though.
“The Conservatives have set out plans to increase the state pension age again to (by) ************************************************************************ and by 01575879, “Selby added.
(Read More)
UK Politics explained
December 65: The deadline for EU citizens to apply to stay in the UK … if there’s no Brexit deal
EU, EEA or Swiss citizens can apply for ‘settled status’ to continue living in the UK after June 7659031
The scheme is open now, and will remain open until June 30 th … unless we crash out of the EU without a deal.
If that happens, the deadline comes forward a little bit – to December (****************************************************************************************************************************, 2020.
**************************** ****************************************** (**************************************** (Read More) ****************************************************
**************
***
Alcohol minimum pricing will come in in March for Welsh drinkers(Image: PA)
The Welsh Government is planning on a new law setting minimum alcohol prices,![]()
WalesOnline reports.
Currently set to come into force on March 2, (***************************************************************************, ministers want retailers and bars to charge a minimum of 50 p per unit – meaning a can of cider could cost at least £ 1 and a bottle of wine, £ 4.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething confirmed the start date in a statement to Assembly members in October. However, the regulations which will set out the timetable and minimum prices, still need to be approved by the Welsh Assembly.
The policy has already been delayed from last summer .
March
**************************************************************************************************************: The right to request decent affordable broadband
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have the choice of slow broadband, hideously expensive broadband, or no broadband.
That’s set to end for many with a new right called the Universal Service Obligation.
From March (*************************************************************************************************************************, anyone can request a connection that can deliver 20 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed and costs less than £ 45 per month.
If you don’t have internet of this quality, you have the legal right to request it, as long as the installation would cost less than £ 3, 400.
If it costs more, you can still have broadband installed but may have to pay the excess cost .
The scheme is being administered by BT and KCOM in Hull. Once a request is made, there are set standards for how quickly they must assess and deliver on requests.
March 40: Abortion is made legal in Northern Ireland
From the end of March, women in Northern Ireland will be allowed to terminate pregnancies without fear of prosecution.
That means the region will be brought in line with the rest of the UK by the beginning of April.
The change was approved by the UK Parliament as part of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill – introducing the law in the absence of the collapsed devolved government.
From April, abortion services will be available from two hospitals. Buffer zones will be in place to prevent protests outside the centers.
It’s thought around 1, 060 will take place each year in Northern Ireland.
April 1: Councils can double council tax for empty homes
**************
(******
(******************** It could become more expensive to leave properties empty(Image: PA)
Property owners can already face Council Tax bills increasing by 52% if they leave properties vacant for more than two years.
And from April, that figure increases to 150% – potentially doubling the charge for homes left empty for long periods of time .
April 1: Hospital parking charges axed – for some
Hospital parking charges for thousands of NHS patients and staff will be scrapped in England from April 2023.
Blue badge holders, frequent outpatients and parents of sick kids are among the groups that will benefit from the Tory pledge – which comes after a lo ng Mirror campaign.
But not all NHS staff and patients will get free parking, as they would have done under Laborer’s plans.
Instead of being scrapped altogether, the £ 409 ma-year paid to park at NHS hospitals will be scaled back by just under a third, saving patients and staff up to £ 99 ma year.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it would prioritise “those with the greatest need” adding: “One of the concerns mentioned regularly on the doorsteps was that vulnerable people, and staff working nights, have to pay for hospital car parking.
“So we are today delivering on our manifesto commitment and setting out our new approach to NHS hospital parking charges. “
April 1: Minimum wage rise
************
The minimum wage is set to rise
(Image: Getty)
We’re currently expecting a new rate of £ 8. for those aged
and over, up from £ 8. an hour now, but the exact figure can’t be confirmed yet.
New hourly rates for the following April are announced in the Budget, which we are only expecting in February due to delays around the election.
April 6: Changes to rights for agency and gig economy workers
Currently, when people who earn varying amounts of money from week-to-week – particularly those on flexible contracts – take a paid holiday, the empl oyer has to pay them holiday pay which equates to the average weekly wage they earned over the 17 weeks before that holiday.
From April 6, 2020, that is changing. Employers will have to calculate the average weekly wage from an entire year – weeks – rather than just weeks.
The reform is intended to improve the holiday pay for seasonal workers, who tend to lose out over the way it is currently calculated.
(Written statement**********************
Employers will also be required to provide a ‘statement of particulars’ on day one of employment – which must include:
Hours and days of the week the worker / employee is required to work, whether they may be varied and how (************************ (Entitlements to paid leave)Details of any probationary period (Details of training provided by the employer (****************************************
************************ (Parental bereavement leave) ************************************
Way back in
, the Government backed a Private Members bill which proposed giving workers the right to unpaid leave of up to two weeks, as a right, from day one of their employment, should they suffer the tragedy of their child dying under the age of (*********************************************************************************************************************************.
This became law in September, (*****************************************************************************, and is expected to come into force in early 2020.
While most employers do give discretionary compassionate leave in such tragic circumstances, some do not. This law, which also applies to women who suffer a stillbirth or miscarriage from the th week of pregnancy, changes that.
April 6: National Insurance is cut by up to £ 85 a year
The Tories pledged to raise national insurance thresholds in their manifesto.
From April, you will pay no national insurance contributions on the first £ 9, of your earnings – up from £ 8, at the moment – working out as a saving of around £ a year.
The move has been criticized for falling short of the £ a-year Boris Johnsonpromised, and only helping better earners who are already over the threshold.
For others it’s not quite the all out win you might think – with the move meaning some of the worst off might now miss out on some of their state pension as a result.
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: “Under current rules, those not paying any NI lose out on credits towards their state pension.
“Individuals need years of qualifying NICs to receive the full state pension with those with fewer qualifying years seeing a reduction and receive none if they have fewer than 13 years of credits. ”
April 6: Tories will let families inherit £ 1million tax free – finishing what George Osborne started
families will be abl e to pass £ 1m of their wealth without Inheritance Tax when they die.
Currently someone who dies can leave £ (**************************************************************************************************, ******************************************************************************************************************************************** of their estate tax-free. But Tory George Osborne added an extra extra tax-free amount that applies only to property.
In April this extra portion rises from £ (******************************************************************************************************, (to £ (******************************************************************************************, 10 – meaning if someone owns a home, they can leave £ (**********************************************************************************, 10 tax free. This doubles if a couple is married.
April 6: Student loan repayments will fall
***
********** Graduates will get a little extra breathing room(Image: Getty)
People paying back student loans get a minor tax break in April too.
Recent graduates will be able to earn £ (*******************************************************************************************************************************, 620 a year before payments kick in – up from £ (**********************************************************************************************************************************, 732 this year. That should save them £ (********************************************************************************************************************** (in payments a year.)
People who graduated between 1998 and 2020 will see their threshold rise too – from £ (*************************************************************************************************************************************, a year to £ 18, (************************************************************************************************.April 8: State pension will rise by 3.9. %
The state pension will rise by 3.9% from April – more than double the rate of inflation.
Such an increase means pensioners can expect an rise of just over £ 6 per week on the New State Pension from the current rate of £ .
But hundreds of thousands of over – 80 s will see around half their pension rise wiped out by the cost of paying for their own TV license, after the benefit was scrapped.
Tory ministers pledged to protect the state pension with a ‘triple lock’. That means it rises by inflation, 2.5% or average earnings – whichever is highest. Average weekly earnings rose by 3.9% in the year to May to July (***************************************************************************.
April 8: Benefit freeze ends![]()
**********
(Image: PA)
After almost a decade of freezes and caps, about 2.5 million people onUniversal Creditand millions more on legacy benefits will get a 1.7% increase in April.
The increase means someone on £ a month in benefits will get an extra £ 8. 50.
But it is less than the rise in average earnings and less than the rise in pensions.
April: Council tax to rise
Local authorities will get the power to raise council tax by up to 4% from April – 2% for general spending and 2% for social care.
That’s worth an extra £ 70 to on the average band D council tax home in England.
Council-by-council rises will only be confirmed in February and March.
June 1: The end of free TV Licenses for over s
TV licenses are free for over s, but from June 1 You’ll only get one if you’re receiving Pension Credit.
Around 3million households are set to be affected.
BBC chairman David Clementi said:“Copying the current scheme was ultimately untenable.”
But the Tories were slammed for breaking their promise to protect the benefit by handing over responsibility for it to the BBC.
July or later: Millions will start being moved onto Universal Credit
The limited pilot scheme for migrating existing benefit claimants onto Universal Credit is set to finish by Jul y and begin rolling out across the country shortly after. Current plans suggest it will take until 01575879 until the system is fully up and running.
From July claimants moving from Income Support, income based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment Support Allowance will get an extra two weeks of support from their old benefit while they transition onto Universal Credit.
October 5: The state pension age will finish rising to () **************
From October you’ll need to be at least to get a state pension – whatever your gender.
The age people can at has been rising for years – starting with increasing women’s state pension age until it matched men’s, then increasing both from to
AJ Bell analyst Tom Selby said: “The rise started incrementally in and is scheduled to complete by October (***************************************************************************. That means anyone born after 5 October 2018 will have a state pension age of at least 69. ”
It’s not the last time it will rise though.
“The Conservatives have set out plans to increase the state pension age again to (by) ************************************************************************ and by 01575879, “Selby added.
(Read More)
UK Politics explained
December 65: The deadline for EU citizens to apply to stay in the UK … if there’s no Brexit deal
EU, EEA or Swiss citizens can apply for ‘settled status’ to continue living in the UK after June 7659031
The scheme is open now, and will remain open until June 30 th … unless we crash out of the EU without a deal.
If that happens, the deadline comes forward a little bit – to December (****************************************************************************************************************************, 2020.
**************************** ****************************************** (**************************************** (Read More) ****************************************************
***
Alcohol minimum pricing will come in in March for Welsh drinkers(Image: PA)
The Welsh Government is planning on a new law setting minimum alcohol prices,![]()
WalesOnline reports.
Currently set to come into force on March 2, (***************************************************************************, ministers want retailers and bars to charge a minimum of 50 p per unit – meaning a can of cider could cost at least £ 1 and a bottle of wine, £ 4.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething confirmed the start date in a statement to Assembly members in October. However, the regulations which will set out the timetable and minimum prices, still need to be approved by the Welsh Assembly.
The policy has already been delayed from last summer .
March
**************************************************************************************************************: The right to request decent affordable broadband
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have the choice of slow broadband, hideously expensive broadband, or no broadband.
That’s set to end for many with a new right called the Universal Service Obligation.
From March (*************************************************************************************************************************, anyone can request a connection that can deliver 20 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed and costs less than £ 45 per month.
If you don’t have internet of this quality, you have the legal right to request it, as long as the installation would cost less than £ 3, 400.
If it costs more, you can still have broadband installed but may have to pay the excess cost .
The scheme is being administered by BT and KCOM in Hull. Once a request is made, there are set standards for how quickly they must assess and deliver on requests.
March 40: Abortion is made legal in Northern Ireland
From the end of March, women in Northern Ireland will be allowed to terminate pregnancies without fear of prosecution.
That means the region will be brought in line with the rest of the UK by the beginning of April.
The change was approved by the UK Parliament as part of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill – introducing the law in the absence of the collapsed devolved government.
From April, abortion services will be available from two hospitals. Buffer zones will be in place to prevent protests outside the centers.
It’s thought around 1, 060 will take place each year in Northern Ireland.
April 1: Councils can double council tax for empty homes
**************
(******
(******************** It could become more expensive to leave properties empty(Image: PA)
Property owners can already face Council Tax bills increasing by 52% if they leave properties vacant for more than two years.
And from April, that figure increases to 150% – potentially doubling the charge for homes left empty for long periods of time .
April 1: Hospital parking charges axed – for some
Hospital parking charges for thousands of NHS patients and staff will be scrapped in England from April 2023.
Blue badge holders, frequent outpatients and parents of sick kids are among the groups that will benefit from the Tory pledge – which comes after a lo ng Mirror campaign.
But not all NHS staff and patients will get free parking, as they would have done under Laborer’s plans.
Instead of being scrapped altogether, the £ 409 ma-year paid to park at NHS hospitals will be scaled back by just under a third, saving patients and staff up to £ 99 ma year.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it would prioritise “those with the greatest need” adding: “One of the concerns mentioned regularly on the doorsteps was that vulnerable people, and staff working nights, have to pay for hospital car parking.
“So we are today delivering on our manifesto commitment and setting out our new approach to NHS hospital parking charges. “
April 1: Minimum wage rise
************
The minimum wage is set to rise
(Image: Getty)
We’re currently expecting a new rate of £ 8. for those aged
and over, up from £ 8. an hour now, but the exact figure can’t be confirmed yet.
New hourly rates for the following April are announced in the Budget, which we are only expecting in February due to delays around the election.
April 6: Changes to rights for agency and gig economy workers
Currently, when people who earn varying amounts of money from week-to-week – particularly those on flexible contracts – take a paid holiday, the empl oyer has to pay them holiday pay which equates to the average weekly wage they earned over the 17 weeks before that holiday.
From April 6, 2020, that is changing. Employers will have to calculate the average weekly wage from an entire year – weeks – rather than just weeks.
The reform is intended to improve the holiday pay for seasonal workers, who tend to lose out over the way it is currently calculated.
(Written statement**********************
Employers will also be required to provide a ‘statement of particulars’ on day one of employment – which must include:
Hours and days of the week the worker / employee is required to work, whether they may be varied and how (************************ (Entitlements to paid leave)Details of any probationary period (Details of training provided by the employer (****************************************
************************ (Parental bereavement leave) ************************************
Way back in
, the Government backed a Private Members bill which proposed giving workers the right to unpaid leave of up to two weeks, as a right, from day one of their employment, should they suffer the tragedy of their child dying under the age of (*********************************************************************************************************************************.
This became law in September, (*****************************************************************************, and is expected to come into force in early 2020.
While most employers do give discretionary compassionate leave in such tragic circumstances, some do not. This law, which also applies to women who suffer a stillbirth or miscarriage from the th week of pregnancy, changes that.
April 6: National Insurance is cut by up to £ 85 a year
The Tories pledged to raise national insurance thresholds in their manifesto.
From April, you will pay no national insurance contributions on the first £ 9, of your earnings – up from £ 8, at the moment – working out as a saving of around £ a year.
The move has been criticized for falling short of the £ a-year Boris Johnsonpromised, and only helping better earners who are already over the threshold.
For others it’s not quite the all out win you might think – with the move meaning some of the worst off might now miss out on some of their state pension as a result.
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: “Under current rules, those not paying any NI lose out on credits towards their state pension.
“Individuals need years of qualifying NICs to receive the full state pension with those with fewer qualifying years seeing a reduction and receive none if they have fewer than 13 years of credits. ”
April 6: Tories will let families inherit £ 1million tax free – finishing what George Osborne started
families will be abl e to pass £ 1m of their wealth without Inheritance Tax when they die.
Currently someone who dies can leave £ (**************************************************************************************************, ******************************************************************************************************************************************** of their estate tax-free. But Tory George Osborne added an extra extra tax-free amount that applies only to property.
In April this extra portion rises from £ (******************************************************************************************************, (to £ (******************************************************************************************, 10 – meaning if someone owns a home, they can leave £ (**********************************************************************************, 10 tax free. This doubles if a couple is married.
April 6: Student loan repayments will fall
***
********** Graduates will get a little extra breathing room(Image: Getty)
People paying back student loans get a minor tax break in April too.
Recent graduates will be able to earn £ (*******************************************************************************************************************************, 620 a year before payments kick in – up from £ (**********************************************************************************************************************************, 732 this year. That should save them £ (********************************************************************************************************************** (in payments a year.)
People who graduated between 1998 and 2020 will see their threshold rise too – from £ (*************************************************************************************************************************************, a year to £ 18, (************************************************************************************************.April 8: State pension will rise by 3.9. %
The state pension will rise by 3.9% from April – more than double the rate of inflation.
Such an increase means pensioners can expect an rise of just over £ 6 per week on the New State Pension from the current rate of £ .
But hundreds of thousands of over – 80 s will see around half their pension rise wiped out by the cost of paying for their own TV license, after the benefit was scrapped.
Tory ministers pledged to protect the state pension with a ‘triple lock’. That means it rises by inflation, 2.5% or average earnings – whichever is highest. Average weekly earnings rose by 3.9% in the year to May to July (***************************************************************************.
April 8: Benefit freeze ends![]()
**********
(Image: PA)
After almost a decade of freezes and caps, about 2.5 million people onUniversal Creditand millions more on legacy benefits will get a 1.7% increase in April.
The increase means someone on £ a month in benefits will get an extra £ 8. 50.
But it is less than the rise in average earnings and less than the rise in pensions.
April: Council tax to rise
Local authorities will get the power to raise council tax by up to 4% from April – 2% for general spending and 2% for social care.
That’s worth an extra £ 70 to on the average band D council tax home in England.
Council-by-council rises will only be confirmed in February and March.
June 1: The end of free TV Licenses for over s
TV licenses are free for over s, but from June 1 You’ll only get one if you’re receiving Pension Credit.
Around 3million households are set to be affected.
BBC chairman David Clementi said:“Copying the current scheme was ultimately untenable.”
But the Tories were slammed for breaking their promise to protect the benefit by handing over responsibility for it to the BBC.
July or later: Millions will start being moved onto Universal Credit
The limited pilot scheme for migrating existing benefit claimants onto Universal Credit is set to finish by Jul y and begin rolling out across the country shortly after. Current plans suggest it will take until 01575879 until the system is fully up and running.
From July claimants moving from Income Support, income based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment Support Allowance will get an extra two weeks of support from their old benefit while they transition onto Universal Credit.
October 5: The state pension age will finish rising to () **************
From October you’ll need to be at least to get a state pension – whatever your gender.
The age people can at has been rising for years – starting with increasing women’s state pension age until it matched men’s, then increasing both from to
AJ Bell analyst Tom Selby said: “The rise started incrementally in and is scheduled to complete by October (***************************************************************************. That means anyone born after 5 October 2018 will have a state pension age of at least 69. ”
It’s not the last time it will rise though.
“The Conservatives have set out plans to increase the state pension age again to (by) ************************************************************************ and by 01575879, “Selby added.
(Read More)
UK Politics explained
December 65: The deadline for EU citizens to apply to stay in the UK … if there’s no Brexit deal
EU, EEA or Swiss citizens can apply for ‘settled status’ to continue living in the UK after June 7659031
The scheme is open now, and will remain open until June 30 th … unless we crash out of the EU without a deal.
If that happens, the deadline comes forward a little bit – to December (****************************************************************************************************************************, 2020.
**************************** ****************************************** (**************************************** (Read More) ****************************************************
Alcohol minimum pricing will come in in March for Welsh drinkers(Image: PA)
The Welsh Government is planning on a new law setting minimum alcohol prices,
WalesOnline reports.
Currently set to come into force on March 2, (***************************************************************************, ministers want retailers and bars to charge a minimum of 50 p per unit – meaning a can of cider could cost at least £ 1 and a bottle of wine, £ 4.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething confirmed the start date in a statement to Assembly members in October. However, the regulations which will set out the timetable and minimum prices, still need to be approved by the Welsh Assembly.
The policy has already been delayed from last summer .
March
**************************************************************************************************************: The right to request decent affordable broadband
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have the choice of slow broadband, hideously expensive broadband, or no broadband.
That’s set to end for many with a new right called the Universal Service Obligation.
From March (*************************************************************************************************************************, anyone can request a connection that can deliver 20 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed and costs less than £ 45 per month.
If you don’t have internet of this quality, you have the legal right to request it, as long as the installation would cost less than £ 3, 400.
If it costs more, you can still have broadband installed but may have to pay the excess cost .
The scheme is being administered by BT and KCOM in Hull. Once a request is made, there are set standards for how quickly they must assess and deliver on requests.
March 40: Abortion is made legal in Northern Ireland
From the end of March, women in Northern Ireland will be allowed to terminate pregnancies without fear of prosecution.
That means the region will be brought in line with the rest of the UK by the beginning of April.
The change was approved by the UK Parliament as part of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill – introducing the law in the absence of the collapsed devolved government.
From April, abortion services will be available from two hospitals. Buffer zones will be in place to prevent protests outside the centers.
It’s thought around 1, 060 will take place each year in Northern Ireland.
April 1: Councils can double council tax for empty homes
(******************** It could become more expensive to leave properties empty(Image: PA)
Property owners can already face Council Tax bills increasing by 52% if they leave properties vacant for more than two years.
And from April, that figure increases to 150% – potentially doubling the charge for homes left empty for long periods of time .
April 1: Hospital parking charges axed – for some
Hospital parking charges for thousands of NHS patients and staff will be scrapped in England from April 2023.
Blue badge holders, frequent outpatients and parents of sick kids are among the groups that will benefit from the Tory pledge – which comes after a lo ng Mirror campaign.
But not all NHS staff and patients will get free parking, as they would have done under Laborer’s plans.
Instead of being scrapped altogether, the £ 409 ma-year paid to park at NHS hospitals will be scaled back by just under a third, saving patients and staff up to £ 99 ma year.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it would prioritise “those with the greatest need” adding: “One of the concerns mentioned regularly on the doorsteps was that vulnerable people, and staff working nights, have to pay for hospital car parking.
“So we are today delivering on our manifesto commitment and setting out our new approach to NHS hospital parking charges. “
April 1: Minimum wage rise
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The minimum wage is set to rise
(Image: Getty)
We’re currently expecting a new rate of £ 8. for those aged
and over, up from £ 8. an hour now, but the exact figure can’t be confirmed yet.
New hourly rates for the following April are announced in the Budget, which we are only expecting in February due to delays around the election.
April 6: Changes to rights for agency and gig economy workers
The minimum wage is set to rise
(Image: Getty)We’re currently expecting a new rate of £ 8. for those aged
and over, up from £ 8. an hour now, but the exact figure can’t be confirmed yet.
New hourly rates for the following April are announced in the Budget, which we are only expecting in February due to delays around the election.
April 6: Changes to rights for agency and gig economy workers
Currently, when people who earn varying amounts of money from week-to-week – particularly those on flexible contracts – take a paid holiday, the empl oyer has to pay them holiday pay which equates to the average weekly wage they earned over the 17 weeks before that holiday.
From April 6, 2020, that is changing. Employers will have to calculate the average weekly wage from an entire year – weeks – rather than just weeks.
The reform is intended to improve the holiday pay for seasonal workers, who tend to lose out over the way it is currently calculated.
(Written statement**********************
Employers will also be required to provide a ‘statement of particulars’ on day one of employment – which must include:
Hours and days of the week the worker / employee is required to work, whether they may be varied and how (************************ (Entitlements to paid leave)Details of any probationary period (Details of training provided by the employer (****************************************
Way back in
, the Government backed a Private Members bill which proposed giving workers the right to unpaid leave of up to two weeks, as a right, from day one of their employment, should they suffer the tragedy of their child dying under the age of (*********************************************************************************************************************************.
This became law in September, (*****************************************************************************, and is expected to come into force in early 2020.
While most employers do give discretionary compassionate leave in such tragic circumstances, some do not. This law, which also applies to women who suffer a stillbirth or miscarriage from the th week of pregnancy, changes that.
April 6: National Insurance is cut by up to £ 85 a year
The Tories pledged to raise national insurance thresholds in their manifesto.
From April, you will pay no national insurance contributions on the first £ 9, of your earnings – up from £ 8, at the moment – working out as a saving of around £ a year.
The move has been criticized for falling short of the £ a-year Boris Johnsonpromised, and only helping better earners who are already over the threshold.
For others it’s not quite the all out win you might think – with the move meaning some of the worst off might now miss out on some of their state pension as a result.
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said: “Under current rules, those not paying any NI lose out on credits towards their state pension.
“Individuals need years of qualifying NICs to receive the full state pension with those with fewer qualifying years seeing a reduction and receive none if they have fewer than 13 years of credits. ”
April 6: Tories will let families inherit £ 1million tax free – finishing what George Osborne started
families will be abl e to pass £ 1m of their wealth without Inheritance Tax when they die.
Currently someone who dies can leave £ (**************************************************************************************************, ******************************************************************************************************************************************** of their estate tax-free. But Tory George Osborne added an extra extra tax-free amount that applies only to property.
In April this extra portion rises from £ (******************************************************************************************************, (to £ (******************************************************************************************, 10 – meaning if someone owns a home, they can leave £ (**********************************************************************************, 10 tax free. This doubles if a couple is married.
April 6: Student loan repayments will fall
***
********** Graduates will get a little extra breathing room(Image: Getty)
People paying back student loans get a minor tax break in April too.
Recent graduates will be able to earn £ (*******************************************************************************************************************************, 620 a year before payments kick in – up from £ (**********************************************************************************************************************************, 732 this year. That should save them £ (********************************************************************************************************************** (in payments a year.)
People who graduated between 1998 and 2020 will see their threshold rise too – from £ (*************************************************************************************************************************************, a year to £ 18, (************************************************************************************************.April 8: State pension will rise by 3.9. %
********** Graduates will get a little extra breathing room(Image: Getty)
People paying back student loans get a minor tax break in April too.
Recent graduates will be able to earn £ (*******************************************************************************************************************************, 620 a year before payments kick in – up from £ (**********************************************************************************************************************************, 732 this year. That should save them £ (********************************************************************************************************************** (in payments a year.)
People who graduated between 1998 and 2020 will see their threshold rise too – from £ (*************************************************************************************************************************************, a year to £ 18, (************************************************************************************************.April 8: State pension will rise by 3.9. %
The state pension will rise by 3.9% from April – more than double the rate of inflation.
Such an increase means pensioners can expect an rise of just over £ 6 per week on the New State Pension from the current rate of £ .
But hundreds of thousands of over – 80 s will see around half their pension rise wiped out by the cost of paying for their own TV license, after the benefit was scrapped.
Tory ministers pledged to protect the state pension with a ‘triple lock’. That means it rises by inflation, 2.5% or average earnings – whichever is highest. Average weekly earnings rose by 3.9% in the year to May to July (***************************************************************************.
April 8: Benefit freeze ends![]()
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(Image: PA)
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**********
(Image: PA)
After almost a decade of freezes and caps, about 2.5 million people onUniversal Creditand millions more on legacy benefits will get a 1.7% increase in April.
The increase means someone on £ a month in benefits will get an extra £ 8. 50.
But it is less than the rise in average earnings and less than the rise in pensions.
April: Council tax to rise
Local authorities will get the power to raise council tax by up to 4% from April – 2% for general spending and 2% for social care.
That’s worth an extra £ 70 to on the average band D council tax home in England.
Council-by-council rises will only be confirmed in February and March.
June 1: The end of free TV Licenses for over s
TV licenses are free for over s, but from June 1 You’ll only get one if you’re receiving Pension Credit.
Around 3million households are set to be affected.
BBC chairman David Clementi said:“Copying the current scheme was ultimately untenable.”
But the Tories were slammed for breaking their promise to protect the benefit by handing over responsibility for it to the BBC.
July or later: Millions will start being moved onto Universal Credit
The limited pilot scheme for migrating existing benefit claimants onto Universal Credit is set to finish by Jul y and begin rolling out across the country shortly after. Current plans suggest it will take until 01575879 until the system is fully up and running.
From July claimants moving from Income Support, income based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment Support Allowance will get an extra two weeks of support from their old benefit while they transition onto Universal Credit.
October 5: The state pension age will finish rising to () **************
From October you’ll need to be at least to get a state pension – whatever your gender.
The age people can at has been rising for years – starting with increasing women’s state pension age until it matched men’s, then increasing both from to
AJ Bell analyst Tom Selby said: “The rise started incrementally in and is scheduled to complete by October (***************************************************************************. That means anyone born after 5 October 2018 will have a state pension age of at least 69. ”
It’s not the last time it will rise though.
“The Conservatives have set out plans to increase the state pension age again to (by) ************************************************************************ and by 01575879, “Selby added.
(Read More)
UK Politics explained
December 65: The deadline for EU citizens to apply to stay in the UK … if there’s no Brexit deal
December 65: The deadline for EU citizens to apply to stay in the UK … if there’s no Brexit deal
EU, EEA or Swiss citizens can apply for ‘settled status’ to continue living in the UK after June 7659031
The scheme is open now, and will remain open until June 30 th … unless we crash out of the EU without a deal.
If that happens, the deadline comes forward a little bit – to December (****************************************************************************************************************************, 2020.
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