UK: April Changes: New Employment Rights and Rates Increases in Effect
Authors: Stephen Miller, Corinna Harris, and Sophie Jackson
We set out the new statutory rates that come into effect in April 2025, as well as the new right to paid neonatal care leave which applies in relation to babies born on or after 6 April 2025.
The new rights to neonatal leave and pay are now in force. The new rights give parents of babies born on or after 6 April 2025 up to 12 weeks’ leave and pay when their baby needs specialist neonatal care for at least seven continuous days within the first 28 days of birth. While neonatal leave will be a day one right, parents will need 26 weeks’ continuous service to qualify for neonatal care pay. This right will be in addition to existing family leave entitlements that parents may have.
There is newly published government guidance and Acas guidance on the new rights. For more information, you can read our detailed update.
Other key April employment law changes include:
- Increases to Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
- New statutory minimum wage rates (NMW)
- Increases to the statutory rates for statutory sick pay and family-related leave
- Increases to the maximum compensation for unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy pay
- Increases to the bands for injury to feelings awards that Tribunals can make in discrimination cases. The new rates are:
- For less serious cases, a lower band of £1,200 to £12,100
- For cases that do not merit an award in the upper band, a middle band of £12,100 to £36,400
- For the most serious cases, an upper band of £36,400 to £60,700 – with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £60,700.
With the exception of the new rates for NMW which came into effect from 1 April 2025, these changes all came into effect on 6 April 2025. For more details of the new rates, please read our previous update.
Key Action Points for Human Resources and In-house Counsel
The changes to Employer NICs will be particularly significant for employers, as well as the substantial increase in NMW rates.
Employers should update their family friendly policies to include provision for the new right to paid neonatal care leave. If you would like assistance with a neonatal care leave policy, please get in touch.
