The dole is too much!!

Irishcrx

Am I the only one that thinks the dole is far too high in this country, why would anyone want to get a job even if there was any. I have a mate I live it and he has more bloody money than I do and I work 45 hours a week. He has his rent payed for him by the government and pays 30 euro a month himself, and then the extra 200 a week as normal and this is without lifting a finger all he does all day is sleep, eat, smoke and eat and complain about being busy if he has to walk 5 mins to the shop at some point in the next 4 hours.

Do you think the government will be forced to cut the dole payments if the national debt and unemployment keeps rising?

seamus

If you think that sleeping, eating and smoking is a good way to spend your day, and living in a ****ty part of the city in a ****ty place and only having €200/week to spend is the definition of "great living", then off you go.

Personally, actually filling my day with stuff is far more rewarding. I've done the "no job" bit - getting up at midday and cooking burger and chips, then watching TV till 8pm. It gets old after a week and you spend your entire day in mind-numbing boredom.

But yes, I do think the dole is too much. It should be a series of "allowances", where the person presents receipts for their rent, medical bills and any other fixed costs, and the government looks after that. Then they get a small subsistence, say €100/week for food and clothing. Giving people a wad of cash to blow on whatever they like only serves to compound the problem in cases where the person is unemployed by choice.

CreepingDeath

Irishcrx wrote: »

Am I the only one that thinks the dole is far too high in this country

Should be on a declining scale, cut 10% every 2 months for anyone healthy and under say 50 years old.

Wagon

Irishcrx wrote: »

Am I the only one that thinks the dole is far too high in this country, why would anyone want to get a job even if there was any. I have a mate I live it and he has more bloody money than I do and I work 45 hours a week. He has his rent payed for him by the government and pays 30 euro a month himself, and then the extra 200 a week as normal and this is without lifting a finger all he does all day is sleep, eat, smoke and eat and complain about being busy if he has to walk 5 mins to the shop at some point in the next 4 hours.

Do you think the government will be forced to cut the dole payments if the national debt and unemployment keeps rising?

If people are trying to find a job and can't get one, then yes they should get the dole payment. But if they aren't actively trying to find work in any way then it should be cut, or at least make them pay half their rent. Cuts out the wasters. but you can't cut everyones dole down, there's a lot of people out there who want to work but can't.

brianthebard

No the dole is not too much. In fact what you are given is not enough-there's not enough support for job seeking, for education and re education, for socialising and making sure people aren't isolated and on their own. You may think free money is a great gig but as seamus says there's no reward to it.

Relevant

I don't think it is too much but i think they should be stricter on people actively seeking work. A friend of mine just has to bring in rejection letters from Grad Programmes in banks and he gets it. The fact that no banks are hiring should mean that he is told to lower his expectations or get kicked off the dole!

AnonoBoy

It's not too much. If you're working on a decent wage then try and survive on what the dole gives you for a month and see how well you get on. It's not exactly living the high life.

I don't care - I've got a job for life! Oh yeah, nothing can touch me. I'm gonna live forever! :cool:

DubArk

Some real people who have just lost their jobs need to survive on this every week, who have paid into the system all their working lives.

So just cause your mate is a bloody fossil, is not a good enough reason to judge others who are trying their best to get a job and survive!

Irishcrx

Yeah exactly, I didn't mean to generalise the hard working people who are out of work at the moment and LOOKING for work, I could be that myself in the next few weeks it's the likes of my mate who have never worked, never intend to and are still getting these JOB SEEKERS allowance payment and in the 3 years I've known him he hasn't so much as handed a CV out even when things were going well with jobs, it's the thousands of them that are raping the tax payers money.

Tech3

Tbh 200 euro a week isint much, when you take the cost of public transport, food and rent in this country you would just about get by with that much as week. Its all down to the cost of living in this country, if inflation decreses then the dole can then be reduced then.

Thank god im working!

pf85

The dole in the north is only around £50 a week (£48 I think)... I no there are gennuine people out there trying to get jobs and cant with the current climate but I think 200euro a week is too much and doesnt encourage some people to get jobs.

Tech3

Irishcrx wrote: »

Yeah exactly, I didn't mean to generalise the hard working people who are out of work at the moment and LOOKING for work, I could be that myself in the next few weeks it's the likes of my mate who have never worked, never intend to and are still getting these JOB SEEKERS allowance payment and in the 3 years I've known him he hasn't so much as handed a CV out even when things were going well with jobs, it's the thousands of them that are raping the tax payers money.

Yeah I know a friend who does the same. I think its patethic, its some waste of a life.

aoife34

I think it is too much becuase most people i know are not just getting the dole, they get rent allowance, medical card, lone parent. They get paid to mind their children at home, when a lot of people pay sky high prices for creche and doctors fee's and full mortgage payments.

I do not think there are enough social welfare investigations for fraud.

LeahBaby

The dole is not too much. Myself and my bf work 50 hour weeks to pay our mortgage and are both about to be let go. The dole won't make a dint on our monthly outgoings. We have been sitting in the last 6 months saving so our house doesn't get taken off us.

Is it a pathetic waste of life to sit it when you have to?

embee

It's around the same per week for one parent family payment, and if anyone out there thinks that 200 euro per week is sufficient, it isn't. It's subsistence money and I know that when I was on the dole the amount of money per week I was getting was incentive enough to get a job. You can exist on it but you can't have a life.

Sleipnir

There was a letter in the paper before christmas where a womain said she was on the bus with two guys sitting in the seat behind her talking and one said to the other that he was going to 'bank' the extra social welfare payment as the SVP were buying his family everything for christmas!

It is far too much especially for long term unemployed.

Tech3

LeahBaby wrote: »

.
Is it a pathetic waste of life to sit it when you have to?

I was only referring to people that have been on the dole for a incredible amount of time and couldnt be bothered looking for employment. I really sorry to hear you and your bf have been let go. There should be more support from the goverment for people that have been let go from their jobs and have to pay a mortgage to keep their house

JD1763

Irishcrx wrote: »

are still getting these JOB SEEKERS allowance payment and in the 3 years I've known him he hasn't so much as handed a CV out

I understood that job seekers is only available for the first 15 months, after that point no matter what it stops and you revert to payments that are means tested etc.

Bluetonic

Jobseekers Benefit pre June 08 duration 15 months, after June 08 duration now 12 months or 9 months, based on contributions during relevant tax year and other criteria.

Jobseekers Allowance means tested.

ScumLord

Jayz Irishcrx, if €200 is looking attractive to you, it may be time to look for another job. Other than that why get so upset about your friend, if he wants to waste his life let him. People in this country need to stop worrying about what everyone else is getting and just mind there own business.

holdmyhand?

i have mixed feelings about the dole.

1. the lazy no good, wasters takin my tax and spending it on whatever they want.

2. poor things. have no drive motivation, desire to have a job make a life for themsleves.

I know its more gray then that.... but ya get the idea.

last year i could only get about 10 hours work a week and was living off less then the dole but at the same time there is no way i would have gone on it, i suppose because of my pride.

i find it hard to feel sorry for peope on the dole, when they will publicly admit they left jobs to go on the dole because they get more money...... it irritates me that i pay a fortune in taxes and while some people genuinely deserve the dole, others dont and my money (and everyone elses) could be used to tackle real issues eg medical services

sunnyside

pf85 wrote: »

The dole in the north is only around £50 a week (£48 I think)... I no there are gennuine people out there trying to get jobs and cant with the current climate but I think 200euro a week is too much and doesnt encourage some people to get jobs.

That's very little.

LeahBaby wrote: »

The dole is not too much. Myself and my bf work 50 hour weeks to pay our mortgage and are both about to be let go. The dole won't make a dint on our monthly outgoings. We have been sitting in the last 6 months saving so our house doesn't get taken off us.

Problem is that people's circumstances are so different. When I got dole it wasn't enough because I had no rent allowance but still had to pay rent, household bills and a car loan of €50 a week. All of what I received went straight back out of my account by direct debit and standing order to pay my bills and I ran up another debt on a credit card paying for anything else I needed. This will be the reality for the newly unemployed used to working, they will have a lot of outgoings.

The guy or girl living for free in the council house with no debts, no car, gets the same €200 which is almost entirely disposable income so then it's way too much.

I can't see the amount given being reduced though.

manafana

obviously your not going to have luxury been on the dole why should you, severence pay and regulations are in place for those laid off to help them and their are top ups in the first few months of unemployment if you have the PRSI contributions
My mate is out work since september and has been looking round as he doesnt like been idle. Hes on the 200euro dole with 45 of his 65euro rent paid for as well as medical card. While he says you cant be too fancy he says life is comfortable considering hes not working and the double dole at xmas seems to be bit of joke. He reckons dole is too high himself as he worked bit over xmas and reckoned he wasnt making that much on top of it. A small reduction in dole to 195 or 190 and not an increase is in need, prices are going down and this is one area that should be seening cuts. Workers are been taxed more and so should non-workers.
As for ouir economy its a joke and so many borrowed big living high life, and while im sorry for some who have big mortgage payments now in crippling economy irelands in for worse we are heavily services based which relies on cash turnover which is slowing down, resources we dont have so much and that would be the key to pulling through here.

As side note i was unemployed over summer but couldnt get any dole as i was living at home i would made money just renting somewhere for an address it makes me laugh.

brianthebard

sunnyside wrote: »

The guy or girl living for free in the council house with no debts, no car, gets the same €200 which is almost entirely disposable income so then it's way too much.

I can't see the amount given being reduced though.

Its means tested though, so they don't automatically get the same 200, unless I'm missing something here.

The problem with the dole is that a high percentage of people(not all) who get it easily have no interest in working whatsoever or are making money on the side doing cash in hand work, buying and selling stuff etc. Then when a genuine person who looses their job comes along its fecking impossible to get a cent out of them. I have heard this from many people and experienced it myself briefly.

Degsy

There's plenty of people living quite comfortably on the dole,especialy if they happen to be single mothers.
Some of these people have been claiming since they left school and the idea of working has never occured to them.
Able-bodied people on the dole because they dont want to work is bleeding t his country white.
"

Such as that our system of benefits to unmarried mothers is creating a long-term time-bomb. Even as things stand, we are bribing the unmotivated, the confused, the backward, the lazy into making the worst career decision of their young lives, and becoming professional unmarried mothers, living off the State until the grave takes over. Our welfare system is creating benefits-addicted, fatherless families who will be raised in a culture of personal and economic apathy - and from such warped timber, true masts are seldom hewn."

janullrich

Well personally I will have to go on the dole this week and I am not looking forward to it one bit. However after been let go last week I am entitled to it and I don't think what you get is too much. I will still look for a job but chances are u will need to set up ur own business or emigrate (god knows where though) However the government should do more to get lazy layabouts off their backsides and look for jobs somewhere. I know a guy who I used to live with who spent his dole money on alcohol and nothing much else. He did a bit of caddie work. These people are the ones where dole money is too much and who should be made to suffer by it being scraped.

Also we have these so called refugees from countries like Nigeria who while some work are the worst welfare scrougers going. These are the ones who should get no money at all. The problem with Ireland is that we are so generous to these people when what we should be doing is deporting them.

Berty

seamus wrote: »

If you think that sleeping, eating and smoking is a good way to spend your day, and living in a ****ty part of the city in a ****ty place and only having €200/week to spend is the definition of "great living", then off you go.

I would say that living in a €500k property in Grange and the government giving me €200 to sit on my ass, eat **** and **** is a good compromise that driving around the country selling ovens.

You then go to the local HSE office and claim to be on low means and get a medical card and because you are social housing and have a medical card you get free bus,rail & luas travel(must be on both allowances though).

Boskowski

brianthebard wrote: »

for socialising and making sure people aren't isolated and on their own.

Are you for real?
We all know 'socialising' is just another term for getting pissed and I can't see why I should finance some wasters 10 'Dutch Gold' per day.
The dole is to get people back up on their feet if they lost their job and support them until they found a new one.
Unfortunately a great deal of people have come to a very neat arrangement where they are very content with having their rent and all their stuff paid for and live quite happily off the 200 Euro plus the odd nixer thrown in. They never pay taxes and do not intend to contribute to society in any way ever and we pay them off.
I grant you it's not the most rewarding lifestyle and these people surely will never have a nice car or go on holidays and from our point of view it's quite pathetic, but nevertheless they have arranged themselves with this lifestyle and intend to never lift a finger and live off the rest of society 'til the end of days.
For the first type (the temporary genuine dole receivers) the dole may not be enough.
For the second type it's way too much. Get them off their lazy arses.

KikiDee

I was on the dole for about 3 months when I was let go from my previous job. When I wen to sign on for the first time the lady in the social made me feel like I was something she scrapped from the bottom of her shoe! So condecsending towards me. I was insulted. And every week (I believe you now only once a month) it was the same story 'Still here are we?' stuff like that. It's no wonder long term dolers (as they're called in my home town) don't feel motivated to get a job....when faced with that each week they probably feel worthless.

200e may sound like a lot for 'doing nothing' but trust me, try to live on it. Yes, a portion of your rent is paid, yes, you may get a medical card and so on. But in the last couple of years the price of just everyday living has rocketed!! I realise it's tax payers money and the like but I mean, it's not like tax payers even see that money in their pay packets each week so what are we missing??

Berty

I think peoples opinions will have to start changing on the people on social welfare.

I always held a view that the majority were lazy layabouts with no interest in finding a job but in these days of uncertainty there will be soo many people desperate for a job that I wont be judging people so fast.

It could be me next.