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Health Canada identifies lithium-ion batteries, infant bath seats, and water beads as hazards of concern
Health Canada has recently identified three new classes of products that pose a hazard of concern.
United Kingdom | Publication | March 2024
The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has partly upheld a complaint by a member of a DB public sector scheme who alleged that the administrator had provided incorrect information about his lifetime allowance (LTA) which led him to opt out of the scheme.
In early 2016, the administrator wrote to the member informing him that he "may be affected" by a reduction in the LTA coming into effect in April 2016. The letter was sent following an incorrect overstatement of the member’s pension benefits provided by the employer. The member claimed that the letter led him to believe that the value of his benefits was approaching his LTA and as a result, he decided to opt out of paying contributions. A year later, after discovering that the value of his benefits was unlikely to breach the LTA, he opted back in. However, by this time, he had lost the ability to make further contributions into his added years contract under the scheme's rules.
The Ombudsman held that the administrator was not responsible for the provision of incorrect information by the employer. Neither did the administrator provide any incorrect information about the LTA in its 2016 letter. The letter did not say that the member was close to, or in excess of, the LTA, nor did it recommend any specific action. Ultimately, it was the member's responsibility to establish his LTA position and the administrator was not responsible for the financial consequences of the member's decision to opt out.
However, the Ombudsman did find that the administrator had made other errors constituting maladministration, including taking around nine months to respond to the member's complaint and overpaying the member's lump sum. Consequently, the administrator was ordered to pay the member £1,000 for the serious distress and inconvenience caused.
Generally, employers should avoid giving members financial advice. Where there are major changes in the law which could affect members, information should be provided without going into detail on how benefits could be affected. The member bears the ultimate responsibility for determining how changes affect them personally.
Read the Determination.
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An employer’s ability to ask for a sick note when an employee is absent from work due to illness is becoming increasingly curtailed across Canada.
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Over the past two years, Spain has significantly strengthened its foreign investment screening mechanism, and all acquisitions by foreign investors (as defined below) of a Spanish entity active in a strategic sector are subject to prior authorisation by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (“MoICT”).
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