Power bill, petrol price and pension changes to come into effect on January 1

The New Year could herald changes to your power bill, prices at the petrol pump or to your pension. The new regulations and fees come into effect from January 1.

Millions will be affected by the changes to many services that kick in on January 1, 2017. Source: AAP

When the clock ticks over at midnight on New Year's Eve, millions will feel a hit to their back pocket, with new changes due to come into effect.

A new assets test will affect many pension payments next year.

Almost 330,000 Australians will find their pension cut from Sunday, 90,000 of them losing it entirely under the reforms.

Some 170,000 pensioners will get about $15 a week extra, but the Turnbull government faces a fight from both the labour movement and One Nation over the changes.

The family home is excluded, but singles with assets over $250,000 will be affected.

So will couples with more than $375,000 worth of assets.

“The concern we’ve got is that what these changes will do is require people to work longer, retire with less or find ways in which they can gain the system.”

Instead of losing $1.40 a fortnight for every thousand dollars over the threshold, pensioners will lose $3 dollars a fortnight, or $78 a year.

The government says most people won't be affected.

But Industry Super Australia says the changes could hurt people currently saving for retirement.

“The concern we’ve got is that what these changes will do is require people to work longer, retire with less or find ways in which they can gain the system,” said ISA CEO, David Whiteley.

In other changes, public dental health services could be put under strain with a new federal funding scheme coming into play.

The benefits available to children will be reduced from $1000 to $700.

“There will be 20 per cent of kids who will potentially miss out on having their full amount of treatment provided,” said Vice President of the Australian Dental Association, Carmelo Bonanno.

Meanwhile the Queensland government is reassuring motorists they won’t be any worse off when the state’s ethanol mandate kicks in, requiring petrol stations to stock E10 fuel.

Petrol prices didn’t fall as low as they were expected to over the Christmas period, prompting the NRMA to warn that the New Year could hold similar challenges for motorists.

“In the short term at least, with the dollar falling and with oil prices increasing it will be harder for Australians to find a bargain at the bowser,” said NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury.

Power bills are also expected to rise, due in part to the closure of Victoria’s Hazelwood coal-fired power station.

And changes to Australia’s tax laws mean users will have to pay GST on their LinkedIn subscriptions, with companies like Ebay and Amazon also being targeted.

Major changes to federal laws from January 1:

Taxes

• Backpacker tax - working holiday-makers will have to pay 15 per cent tax from the first dollar they earn and forego 65 per cent of any superannuation earned when they leave the country. They can no longer claim any tax-free threshold.

Pensions

• The amount of assets (excluding the family home) someone can have before pensions are hit is increasing but pensions will cut out more quickly for those with assets exceeding $375,000 for homeowner couples, $450,000 for single non-homeowners, and $575,000 for non-homeowner couples.

Education

• New VET student loan program begins, replacing the old VET FEE-HELP scheme. Students can get loans up to $5000, $10,000 or $15,000 depending on costs for a limited range of vocational courses.
• Industry Skills Fund, offering grants to help small businesses train staff, closes.
• The period students from regional and remote areas have to work to get the Youth Allowance is cut from 18 months to 14 months.
• Extra funding to schools for students with disabilities.
• Six research block grant schemes for universities is consolidated into two simpler programs.

Agriculture

• Changes to the way levies for cattle, goat, lamb and sheep slaughters are split between R&D and marketing.
• New melon levy of $0.004 per kilo for R&D and Plant Health Australia membership.

Health

• Mepolizumab (trade name: Nucala) for the treatment of severe asthma listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
• Price cut for PBS prescriptions of Thiamine hydrochloride, used for treating vitamin B1 deficiency.
• Changes to Child Dental Benefits Schedule give children aged between two and 17 access to basic dental services, capped at $700 over two years.
• Increase to amount paid to pharmacists dispensing medicines to Remote Area Aboriginal Health Services.

Childcare

• Trial program offering subsidies on nanny fees closes to new applications.

Employment

• New trial of a Launch into Work program offering training, work experience, and mentoring to prepare disadvantaged job seekers for employment.

Environment

• Green Army program ends, no new projects accepted.
• New grants available for councils, community and environmental groups to improve local parks.

Aged care

• Changes to aged-care provider funding, including increasing supplements for rural, remote and specialty services.
• Specialist dementia care units in 31 regions to be set up.
• Rental income from former family home of aged-care residents will be treated the same as pension income tests and the aged-care means test.

Welfare

• Tougher compliance measures for people receiving welfare payments, including more data matching with tax office information about income.
• All newly arrived migrants have to wait two years before becoming eligible for a range of welfare payments, even if they are family of Australian citizens or permanent residents.

Passports

• $20 increase to adult passport fees and $10 for children and seniors.
• $54 increase for priority processing of passport applications.

-With AAP