Wage Subsidy Scheme Issues

abbeybaba

Hi ,I have been continuing to work full time from home but last week was advised that my employer has applied for the wage subsidy scheme and would not be topping up our wage leaving me earning about 300 per week.I will be continuing to work from home with hours maybe slightly reduced going forward.My issue is that I work on a government funded programme which is considered essential work and while the company income may be decreased my employer is still getting paid to provide the service and our requirements will not change on that regard.My employer will essentially still be earning as a result of our work while paying us nothing.There is companies closed and losing earnings massively who are topping up their employees wages and here we have a company who are still receiving there payments from the government while not paying their staff.The scheme is a great incentive but there is employers who will abuse it unfortunately.

Fred Cryton

The 350 a week...applicable to anyone no matter what they were earning previously.


So part time worker on minimum wage doing 25 hours a week, previously taking home 250 euro, now taking home 350 from the government.


Just wondering is Ireland the only country in the world stupid enough to make people better off on welfare than when they were doing some work? Everywhere else seems to tie it to previous earnings. Is Regina Doherty the stupidest human being of all time?


This will have consequences. Not just direct cost. Good luck to restaurants trying to re-open in May, where are they going to get staff if those staff better off on dole!!

godtabh

Fred Cryton wrote: »

The 350 a week...applicable to anyone no matter what they were earning previously.


So part time worker on minimum wage doing 25 hours a week, previously taking home 250 euro, now taking home 350 from the government.


Just wondering is Ireland the only country in the world stupid enough to make people better off on welfare than when they were doing some work? Everywhere else seems to tie it to previous earnings. Is Regina Doherty the stupidest human being of all time?


This will have consequences. Not just direct cost. Good luck to restaurants trying to re-open in May, where are they going to get staff if those staff better off on dole!!

its a temporary measure. When its over €350 will not be available.

Fred Cryton

Right but why is Ireland an outlier here...UK tied it to 80% of previous earnings...

Pitch n Putt

godtabh wrote: »

its a temporary measure. When its over €350 will not be available.

When its over the way things are going with our half cooked lockdown there may be nothing left available

Away With The Fairies

Why are you giving out about someone working short hours?

How do you feel about the self-employed who has to close up their business and may not ever re-open again?

jrmb

Someone earning €1,000 per month presumably gets rent, medical and other allowances, and those aren't being processed at the moment. The single payment of €350 is a streamlining exercise.

Fred Cryton

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

Why are you giving out about someone working short hours?

How do you feel about the self-employed who has to close up their business and may not ever re-open again?

Read the post again. I'm "giving out" that these workers are better off sitting on their backsides than when they were working. That only happened in Ireland. Why are we special?


Didn't mention self employed.

michellie

I'm a part time worker and due to my job "kindly" giving us 70% I am coming out with €100 a week less.

Probably cost more to do all the admin around processing peoples current wages, etc than it would be to just give everyone the 350.

michellie

And it's not "on the dole" ?!?

Podge201

The mammies on mickey money must be furious.

iamwhoiam

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Right but why is Ireland an outlier here...UK tied it to 80% of previous earnings...

UK also not paying a whole swathe of free lance workers , now left with no income at all .,

newcavanman

I deal with grocery shops, and they are currently have huge issues retaining staff. large numbers of part timers have left and signed on to the government scheme. They dont need any documentation etc from their employer , all people have to do is claim that covid 19 means they cannot work. The scheme is completely bonkers and was a typical Irish Govt knee jerk reaction to a crisis. The result of this, is that afterwards, 350 euro per week, will become the new minimum wage in many peoples mind. I honestly believe it will be a catastrophie for the country

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Not just ireland. I'm in Germany and got more than twice times what I was earning part time/freelancing before hand (although my earnings vary from month to month considerably).

That said, it was a one-off payment and there is a chance it will be audited and unused parts of it may be requeste back.

Away With The Fairies

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Read the post again. I'm "giving out" that these workers are better off sitting on their backsides than when they were working. That only happened in Ireland. Why are we special?


Didn't mention self employed.

But you're just giving out about someone who was working short hours. Making them out to be some lazy dole scrounger. They're not, they lost their job. What do you want them to do?

Fred Cryton

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Read the post again. I'm "giving out" that these workers are better off sitting on their backsides than when they were working. That only happened in Ireland. Why are we special?


Didn't mention self employed.

First of all it is not the dole. The way your opening post reads is that all of those workers and taxpayers are the lowest of the low. Says more about you than them.

Secondly, this is a temporary measure and will only be in place until the emergency has passed. Acting fast was the only way and due to the huge amount of job losses within days of each other, the best thing was to get the claims in and processed as fast as possible.

It’s quite possible that things may be reviewed before the emergency is over and the welfare office (who are doing a great job) have time to look more in-depth at claims.

noodler

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Right but why is Ireland an outlier here...UK tied it to 80% of previous earnings...

Completely different thing.

The 350 is for people who have been laid off.

The 80% you refer to is the employer subsidy scheme in the UK ( it's only 80% up to 2.5k) a month and it means you aren't actually laid off. We have a similar scheme here at 70% but again, you haven't actually been laid off under that scheme.

The money is going back into the economy to keep the lights.

Sober Crappy Chemis

Ah, even when we do something positive for people, it’s a negative.

And OP, what about those teachers on full pay to sit at home? Let me hear you grrrrrr....

ninebeanrows

It was a strange move alright.

Even if they just let people self declare they could have saved tens possibly hundreds of millions.

'Please calculate your average weekly salary (capped at 350 per week).'

Majority would have been honest and it would have saved exchequer huge.

Isn't the e350 just for 12 weeks too?.. They'll be onto the normal dole then..

jrosen

I work part time and have been laid off. Id much rather be working and I have no idea if I will have a job to go back too.
I dont earn far off the 350 anyway.

I guess the idea was get a payment rolling asap and ask questions later. Someone had to be done and done quickly.

mickdw

Ya a self declaration would have been a good idea.
Straight forward for paye and the self employed could have come up with their own figure based on previous months.

Xertz

To be quite honest most of that money will go straight back into the economy again.

You have to also think of this as “helicopter money” in terms of economic stimulus.

When people get back to some semblance of normality the last thing you would want is everyone to be broke and have a massive lack of spending into the economy again.

We seem to get into a lot of this fiscal rectitude stuff but in reality social a huge element of welfare payments just flow straight back into the economy again as spending on essential items.

Those payments are ultimately keeping what’s open in retail afloat and that will expand as restrictions ease.

This isn’t just a normal recession. It’s a natural disaster type scenario, albeit one without infrastructure damage.

suicide_circus

Podge201 wrote: »

The mammies on mickey money must be furious.

yep i heard a woman giving out on Joe Duffy that she and her partners are both on €203 per week (plus HAP, medical card, child allowance etc etc etc) but some student who lost their job is now on €350 per week.

she found this to be an intolerable injustice.

SCOOP 64

Deleted User wrote: »

Isn't the e350 just for 12 weeks too?.. They'll be onto the normal dole then..

It says on gov.ie that it ‘will be In place for the duration of the crisis’.

SCOOP 64

suicide_circus wrote: »

yep i heard a woman giving out on Joe Duffy that she and her partners are both on €203 per week (plus HAP, medical card, child allowance etc etc etc) but some student who lost their job is now on €350 per week.

she found this to be an intolerable injustice.

Does seem abit mad alright , my neighbours daughter whos a student only worked Saturdays for €80 is now getting €350, shes hoping it will go for 12 weeks and save €4200, she will be able to buy her first car as no living expense as living with parents, but thats the way it is.

SCOOP 64

SCOOP 64 wrote: »

Does seem abit mad alright , my neighbours daughter whos a student only worked Saturdays for €80 is now getting €350, shes hoping it will go for 12 weeks and save €4200, she will be able to buy her first car as no living expense as living with parents, but thats the way it is.

So then she’ll have motor tax, insurance, fuel, maintenance costs to pay for. If she buys from a dealer they’ll be paying tax too. All money that will go back into the economy. And in order to pay for the above, she’ll probably go back to that part time job as she can’t get other welfare whilst a student.

The_Brood

What's sick is how little full-time employed workers in entry level positions get paid in Ireland, both in public and private service. That's what makes this situation a complete mockery. If 350 a week is the bare minimum needed to survive, why are you paying the bare minimum of survival for people who are working full time? It's amazing how Ireland is championed as some kind of progressive global paradise when few countries screw lower earners worse than this.