Budget Day - The Official After Hours Thread - (Ireland's undisputed Voice of Reason)

ash23

hoodwinked wrote: »

HA my mil is the exact same, however i will now have to teach my grandmother moreso on how to use her mobile (and not just send me blank texts when she is trying to ring my cousin) and she is not an easy woman to teach, i know she gets annoyed that her grandchildren understand something she cant' grasp and its embarrassing which then causes her to lash out in frustration

but mobile really is the way to go, she was struggling with the €100 bi monthly phone bills as is. she'd use less then €20 credit in a month.

I thought it was also about an elderly person being able to contact someone in the event of an emergency?

Are they getting rid of it in the household benefit package for disabled people also does anyone know?

wolfpawnat

vitani wrote: »

I read somewhere that people will still be able to apply for an exceptional needs payment to cover funeral costs - they're just getting rid of the specific grant for it. Which, tbh, covers only a fraction of the cost of a funeral anyway.

Was talking to my godfather, 1600 for a single plot outside cork city. A town in Clare has it at 550 a double plot.

Undertaker is circa 5000, that's not a casket bought or anything. It will cripple people!

hoodwinked

ash23 wrote: »

I thought it was also about an elderly person being able to contact someone in the event of an emergency?

Are they getting rid of it in the household benefit package for disabled people also does anyone know?

i think so, RTE had a woman on who was blind and she was calling it a hidden cut, i think it applied to her...

folan

ash23 wrote: »

I thought it was also about an elderly person being able to contact someone in the event of an emergency?

how much was it?

The Diddakoi

ash23 wrote: »

Are they getting rid of it in the household benefit package for disabled people also does anyone know?

Household benefit package stays the same, just phone allowance is gone

http://www.welfare.ie/en/downloads/budfact14.pdf

wolfpawnat

ash23 wrote: »

I thought it was also about an elderly person being able to contact someone in the event of an emergency?

It is, and for that, I would never suggest getting rid of it, but like so many other welfare payments, it is being abused!

wolfpawnat

folan wrote: »

how much was it?

9.50 for the phone. Apparently saving 44 million.

raven136

Pearse Doherty is a very impressive politican

SF should be looking at him as leader

tobsey

wolfpawnat wrote: »

Was talking to my godfather, 1600 for a single plot outside cork city. A town in Clare has it at 550 a double plot.

Undertaker is circa 5000, that's not a casket bought or anything. It will cripple people!

The grant was only 850 though so it was quite small compared to the overall cost. If people can afford the thousands to pay for the funeral they don't need the taxpayer to throw 850 at them. Those who can't afford the funeral at all should be given the minimum for a decent send off, whatever that may be.

Kerrydude1981

Was waiting for Pearse to break into a rendition of The Flight of Earls


He spoke well though in all fairness to him

kellyj77

Re the single parent tax credit:

If the mother who is primary carer doesnt work can the father claim it?
Would the father also loose the higher tax bands?

wolfpawnat

tobsey wrote: »

The grant was only 850 though so it was quite small compared to the overall cost. If people can afford the thousands to pay for the funeral they don't need the taxpayer to throw 850 at them. Those who can't afford the funeral at all should be given the minimum for a decent send off, whatever that may be.

It should at least cover the cost of a plot and a basic casket.

The Diddakoi

Cremation starts at €400

ricero

im defintly voting sinn feinn if they can get more people like pearse doherty in the dail

wolfpawnat

alf66 wrote: »

Cremation starts at €400

Why should they be forced to, yes it is a strain on the taxpayer, but cremation is not for everyone. Death is a big deal for some people. I myself am not pushed. The taxpayer should not fund fancy dinners though!

ibarelycare

hoodwinked wrote: »

seriously though, this budget targets pensioners (no more bereavement grants) the telephone allowance being cut is scandalous especially as its the only contact to the outside world or relatives some have since some pensioners cannot use mobiles.

€9.50 a month is nothing compared to some of the hits people have taken. They're not cutting off every OAP's phone line...they're still going to make calls. They're just going to have to pay for them themselves. Hardly a big sacrifice to ask.

hoodwinked wrote: »

i agree to be fair with the jobseekers cuts, he's right to push young people into work and education as opposed to dole, all i hope is they can back this up by making sure everyone who wants a job can have one.

Do you really think the majority of 20-25 year olds don't have a job just because they aren't bothered? Of course the government aren't going to create all these magical jobs out of nowhere. A huge amount of these young people are leaving college and struggling to find work. Young people who were independent will have to go back to living at home. And those who can afford it will have to emigrate. There should have been a blanket cut on SW, the fact that the young people of the country were targeted is a disgrace.

RiverOfLove

ricero wrote: »

im defintly voting sinn feinn if they can get more people like pearse doherty in the dail

Pearse Doherty is hot.

smcgiff

ricero wrote: »

im defintly voting sinn feinn if they can get more people like pearse doherty in the dail

SF have it easy - their hands are clean* financially speaking.

FF are hamstrung by virtue of being the cause of the crisis (yet plenty of people are lining up to vote for them - gombeens to a man/woman) - but SF are able to pontificate - wouldn't trust them for a second though.


*with emphasis on financial#

#ignoring certain bank robberies... Actually, can I start again?!?

tim3000

They want us to take up these Jobbridge schemes then axe the dole, the source of income for these schemes. How is this fair?

Quin_Dub

hoodwinked wrote: »

the telephone allowance being cut is scandalous especially as its the only contact to the outside world or relatives some have since some pensioners cannot use mobiles.

To be fair it's ~€12 a month , so it's not like it's paying their full phone bill anyway.

Money is money though and no doubt it will hurt a few in the pocket , but it's not a safety or social issue as some people are trying to make out.

smcgiff

My name is URL wrote: »

but it just seems like a really political move by government to only reduce payments to those under 25. They're the demographic least likely to vote though, innit

That would make sense if the harshest elements decried by most opposition politicians wasn't the hit to the old re loss allowances and bereavement grant.

The grey vote is the most pandered to, because those buggers actually vote.

A decent budget, considering the mess the country has been left in.

Uriel.

ibarelycare wrote: »

€9.50 a month is nothing compared to some of the hits people have taken. They're not cutting off every OAP's phone line...they're still going to make calls. They're just going to have to pay for them themselves. Hardly a big sacrifice to ask.

Agreed. I would much rather see the telephone allowance cut for them than the fuel/electricity allowance. I say this as someone who pays for an elderly relative's bimonthly phone bill.

Kerrydude1981

How much was the bereavement grant?

Did I hear right in that this was cut today?

EazyD

"I agree to be fair with the jobseekers cuts, he's right to push young people into work and education as opposed to dole,"

What about the young people that have worked and payed their taxes into the system? Within that bracket you could realistically be paying up to 6/7 years prior to having financial problems. The poster above hit the nail on the head with regards to job-bridge and the governments blatant agenda here.

Uriel.

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

How much was the bereavement grant?

Did I hear right in that this was cut today?

€850 and it's gone now completely.

jobeenfitz

Playboy wrote: »

Why are you having kids then if you cant afford it? Do people just expect the state (every other taxpayer) to pick up the slack? Fair enough if you had a decent income and then got hit by the recession but too many people just decide to have a family without thinking through the financial consequences, then all of a sudden its everyones else's problem. The NHS costs a fortune in the UK and unless the Irish are prepared to cough up a similar amount every month to pay for a similar system then people will just have to make do unfortunately.

Here here, have a means test before we are allowed to have sex, its the only way.

Kerrydude1981

Uriel. wrote: »

€850 and it's gone now completely.

Sure that is pure madness,

Could there be a u-turn on this?

Uriel.

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Sure that is pure madness,

Could there be a u-turn on this?

Why?
and
Why?

Sierra Oscar

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Sure that is pure madness,

Could there be a u-turn on this?

They seem pretty adamant on driving it true - sure dead people don't have votes is their mentality.

They are forgetting that someone has to pay for a funeral. People pay PRSI all their life, and now they can't even pass away in peace in the knowledge that they won't be indebting the family they leave behind if they are struggling financially.

It is actually a disgusting, horrible and spiteful cut.

smcgiff

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Sure that is pure madness,

Could there be a u-turn on this?

I wouldn't be surprised if this affected the funeral directors more than the bereaved.

Remember back when there was a grant to buy your own house. That definitely added to the price of houses.

Probably not as direct a relationship, but it probably helped inflate the cost of funerals.