Mate - 1000th day on the dole

nickobrien1985

A friend of mine - Kevin is celebrating his 1000th day on the dole today, he's been 2.5yrs+ out of work.
In that time he has lived at home, (he's 28), and has applied for in total about 10jobs.
He has even admitted that if the dole were lower he might actually work harder to find a job.
He was never bother to go into training either.

Do we have a massive problem with our social welfare system if this is the case?

How bout the govt. offer €500 to someone who finds a job after being on the dole for less than 6mths?

Does my mate have any hope in building a future career at all?

nickobrien1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT9u0pzEmLM

Cookie_Monster

Do we have a massive problem with our social welfare system if this is the case?

NI dole £60, or around €70

Irl dole €196

and yet we're not 2.7 times as expensive as the North are we...

Toblerone1978

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

Do we have a massive problem with our social welfare system if this is the case?

Yes.

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

Does my mate have any hope in building a future career at all?

No, he's too lazy.


Should this be in the Irish Economy section, or After Hours!!

whiteonion

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

A friend of mine - Kevin is celebrating his 1000th day on the dole today, he's been 2.5yrs+ out of work.
In that time he has lived at home, (he's 28), and has applied for in total about 10jobs.
He has even admitted that if the dole were lower he might actually work harder to find a job.
He was never bother to go into training either.

Do we have a massive problem with our social welfare system if this is the case?

How bout the govt. offer €500 to someone who finds a job after being on the dole for less than 6mths?

Does my mate have any hope in building a future career at all?

I think someone who has been unemployed for so long will find it difficult to get any kind of jobs.

nickobrien1985

So true, what to do though?

nickobrien1985

whiteonion wrote: »

I think someone who has been unemployed for so long will find it difficult to get any kind of jobs.

Even minimum wage jobs?

whiteonion

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

So true, what to do though?

Why make this your problem?
If he doesn't want to do anything about it, why should you bother?

nickobrien1985

whiteonion wrote: »

Why make this your problem?
If he doesn't want to do anything about it, why should you bother?

I love him (secretly)

naughto

troolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll,u got the last one closed

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056156159

DWCommuter

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT9u0pzEmLM

Thats fake. Sooty doesn't talk.

later12

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

How bout the govt. offer €500 to someone who finds a job after being on the dole for less than 6mths?

Severence pay? While I think it's pathetic that the need should arise, you have a point in suggesting that and it's probably not a bad idea. Except you'd have to have some follow on recourse if the individual lost their job again shortly thereafter.

Also, bear in mind that the problem is not necessarily a reluctance to seek work, the problem is a genuine lack of employment. Having said that, I think there are some clear instances of people taking the piss, but it wouldn't be the big issue by a long stretch.

recedite

nickobrien1985 wrote: »

I love him (secretly)

This "friend" Kevin, he's really just you, isn't he.

MagicMarker

Is it wrong that I'm jealous of Kevin?

RichardAnd

Congratulations Kevin, you are the paradigm of the over fed and under worked modern irish youth.

Bhoy_

It's funny, I always see openings for retail positions, cleaning jobs etc. but for some people that's below them...

TheReverend

Bhoy_ wrote: »

It's funny, I always see openings for retail positions, cleaning jobs etc. but for some people that's below them...

It would be below me if I was a qualified professional who was just laid off.

Jaysoose

TheReverend wrote: »

It would be below me if I was a qualified professional who was just laid off.

So there if there is no work available in your field you would rather not work at all?

Strange attitude..is the dole not beneath you though...so you would turn your nose up at flipping burgers but would be happy to accept benefits?

BeeDI

New min wage = €7.62 per hour. For standard 390hour week = €297.18.
Now take USC and tax from that probably down to €270 ish for single person.
Now take going to work expenses of a very conservative €70 we are back to €200 net.

Kevin on the other hand nets €196 and has no taxes or expenses to pay.

We are facing into an election, with a plethora of political parties, not one of whom will have a policy to address this fiasco, by way of minimum 30% dole reduction for all under 25's immediatley.

Says it all:(

TheReverend

Jaysoose wrote: »

So there if there is no work available in your field you would rather not work at all?

Strange attitude..is the dole not beneath you though...so you would turn your nose up at flipping burgers but would be happy to accept benefits?

Pretty much yeah

RichardAnd

BeeDI wrote: »

New min wage = €7.62 per hour. For standard 390hour week = €297.18.
Now take USC and tax from that probably down to €270 ish for single person.
Now take going to work expenses of a very conservative €70 we are back to €200 net.

Kevin on the other hand nets €196 and has no taxes or expenses to pay.

We are facing into an election, with a plethora of political parties, not one of whom will have a policy to address this fiasco, by way of minimum 30% dole reduction for all under 25's immediatley.

Says it all:(

Ahh yes but elections are won on utterly "positive" promises. No politician in this country is going to pop a sign on a lamp post saying "Dole cuts, more taxes etc". No, the coming election will likely be won by the party who can convince the most amount of people that they will be not be overly affected by austerity. What that will translate into is something like this:

"no paddy, we won't cut your dole, we'll just just make those with money pay for everything. You're entitled to other people's money!"

I am personally looking forward to the canvassing and can not wait until I hear the knock on my door. This issue will be something I am eager to hear our elected officials offer a solution to. I pity the poor sap that rings my door bell and takes me on

Jaysoose

TheReverend wrote: »

Pretty much yeah

Fair enough.

later12

BeeDI wrote: »

New min wage = €7.62 per hour. For standard 390hour week = €297.18.
Now take USC and tax from that probably down to €270 ish for single person.
Now take going to work expenses of a very conservative €70 we are back to €200 net.

Kevin on the other hand nets €196 and has no taxes or expenses to pay.

You have made some basic errors.

The new minimum wage is €7.65/hr. This gives a weekly gross pay (for a 39 hour working week) of €298.35. That individual will pay just over €8 per week in the Universal Social Charge, not €27 as you suggest.

Furthermore, the maximum personal rate for jobseekers allowance is currently €188 euro p/w, and not the €196 p/w that you suggest.

I'm not sure where you got the arbitrary €70 figure from, I worked for 3 years in Ireland and never paid anything of the sort to get to get into work. For a five day working week, that would suggest €7 to get into work every day and €7 to get home that evening. I'm not convinced that such an expense would be common. €14 for daily travel expense probably amounts to a taxi ride and a bus journey for city dwellers, or a particularly fuel hungry car for country people - unlikely for minimum wage earners. Either way, it wouldn't be a common expense on a daily basis.

Head The Wall

I spend around 50 a week on petrol going in and out to work. 13 miles on the motorway. I also have to eat and bringing your own sandwiches, fruit etc still adds up so 70 seems about right to me

later12

Head The Wall wrote: »

I spend around 50 a week on petrol going in and out to work. 13 miles on the motorway. I also have to eat and bringing your own sandwiches, fruit etc still adds up so 70 seems about right to me

Ok, the point isn't that nobody spends €70 per week in travelling expenses, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be the typical case, and especially not for minimum wage earners even on €8.65.

In fact you have yourself included some food costs into that, and the real fuel contribution to driving (a non typical) 13 miles for work every day is, in your case, €50, not €70.

tails_naf

Head The Wall wrote: »

I spend around 50 a week on petrol going in and out to work. 13 miles on the motorway. I also have to eat and bringing your own sandwiches, fruit etc still adds up so 70 seems about right to me

I assume people on the dole eat at home too?

also, 26 miles a day = 130 a week (5day).
50 euro = at least 8 gallons of petrol (better if diesel)
16.25 miles/gallon. Maybe you shouldn't drive a hum-vee to work?

Head The Wall

later10 wrote: »

In fact you have yourself included some food costs into that, and the real fuel contribution to driving (a non typical) 13 miles for work every day is, in your case, €50, not €70.

I wouldn't call it non typical. I'll have to presume you live in Dublin as I actually have a fairly short commute compared to the majority of people I know. There is no real useable public transport outside of Dublin and couple that with people buying houses miles from work and you'll find a lot of people have a serious commute every day

Head The Wall

tails_naf wrote: »

I assume people on the dole eat at home too?

also, 26 miles a day = 130 a week (5day).
50 euro = at least 8 gallons of petrol (better if diesel)
16.25 miles/gallon. Maybe you shouldn't drive a hum-vee to work?

I work six and sometimes seven days a week and may trip into town after work one or two evenings. It's not the most economical motor I have (turbo) but I do get 35 mpg on the motorway and actually spend less than when I used to travel four miles into the city and the sitting in traffic that used to entail as well as it taking one hour.

later12

Head The Wall wrote: »

I wouldn't call it non typical.

I would. You also admit that the vehicle is a bit fuel hungry in a subsequent post, and I would maintain that this is atypical of minimum wage earners in general, who are more likely to drive smaller cars and be careful about consumption, that's if they drive at all. You also say that there is more to this fuel consumption than purely going in and out to work and however small, that should be factored in as well.

The point, to get back to it, is that spending €70 per week in travelling to work costs is not typical of minimum wage earners.

bazzare

tell your mate to stop wasting his time on the dole and get up off his arse and emigrate...for gods sakes.. why bother continue to stay here in such a hopelesss situation.

at least if he emigrated he could be working and earning money..

Cavehill Red

How many forums are you going to post this in?

I notice you didn't mention the humiliation party you threw at your house for your friend where you gave him a diploma of unemployability in this thread.

Why was that?

Black Swan

This identical thread was posted in 3 different forums, which is against our charter and boards.ie policy. Locked.