Hunger striker gets attention of minister.

Fromthetrees

It's the seventh day of Ray Barry's hunger strike. He's been on the radio the last couple of days and he does make some legitimate points.
His wife is earning 377 per week and the benefit is means tested up to 372 per week so he doesn't qualify.
He also received a 'substantial' redundancy pay off when he left his last job.
I feel sorry for his position but he was means tested and was deemed to have enough to live on so I think what he is doing is extreme and quite futile.

http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/hunger-striker-gets-attention-of-minister-179858.html

seamus

He's fringe case, I don't see what he's hoping to achieve really. A line has to be drawn somewhere for the means test, he's just unlucky enough to be barely on the wrong side of it.

What he should be doing is asking his wife's employer to reduce her pay by €6/week. That will bring them back inside the allowance threshold without breaking the bank. This is actually quite a common thing to do, I know a number of people who have "capped" their salary (i.e. they refuse all bonusses and pay increases) in order to stay below thresholds and continue claiming benefits.

It's ethically wrong, but there's nothing legally underhand or incorrect about it.

naoise80

More sensationalist crap from the media... akin to the family eating cardboard.

How much did he receive in redundancy payment and what has he done with it?

Also he says he worked for all those years and got nothing back. He got €9,776 back in JSB.

Sam Kade

He crossed the line, his excuse I didn't see no line :rolleyes: He is wasting his time unless as someone already mentioned his wife gets her pay reduced and reapply. If they give in to him then everybody else that are a few € over will want the same.

Son Of A Vidic

naoise80 wrote: »

How much did he receive in redundancy payment and what has he done with it?

The guy is looking for work and there is no guarantee of course that he will find work. So regardless of how much redundancy he got, do you think he can live off this indefinitely?

I have been working for the best part of three decades and have paid more than 1,400 weeks in tax and PRSI contributions,"

It is pretty much a joke, when someone who has paid their way for over 26 years is entitled too nothing.

Bottle_of_Smoke

The amount of clowns who think they've got what it takes to go through a hunger strike never ceases to amaze me. In a few days he'll come off it and all this will be forgotton about

Galwayguy35

When he gets hungry enough he will give it up. People like that should get no publicity or news coverage at all. He was means tested and found to be not entitled to what he was looking for so he needs to get over it.

murphaph

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

It is pretty much a joke, when someone who has paid their way for over 26 years is entitled too nothing.

Well he wasn't entitled to nothing, as already said, he got a year's benefits. They are obviously a family that want to work and have worked. The wife could probably "lose" her job and they'd be better off with the rent supplement and assorted benefits they'd get if BOTH of them were unemployed, so I can see why he feels the system is broken (which it DEFINITELY is).

I wonder though, surely they'd qualify for FIS or something?

The system should be reformed regardless so that people who have worked get a percentage of their last salary for a year, then it should be reduced steadily to a subsistence level (lower than current dole for sure).

It must be incredibly annoying for him however to see "certain types" heading into the social welfare office knowing how to play the system while a man who worked all his life is cut off.

Ian64

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

When he gets hungry enough he will give it up. People like that should get no publicity or news coverage at all. He was means tested and found to be not entitled to what he was looking for so he needs to get over it.

Let him starve! He is just another dolite who is suffering from "entitleditis"

hatrickpatrick

If the means test bar is too low to live on then it needs to be raised.

And obviously such a means test should take into account things such as whether you have children etc.

Permabear

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Athlone_Bhoy

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Why not the family home! Someone could have a million euro home and still get the dole?

endabob1

Why doesn't he just move out. Then they would be assesed seperately, he would be entitled to a house, close enough to the family home so he could see his kids and his wife would then be a single mother who would possibly qualify fo mortgage assistance.

This is one of the great flaws in the system imo.

Athlone_Bhoy

endabob1 wrote: »

Why doesn't he just move out. Then they would be assesed seperately, he would be entitled to a house, close enough to the family home so he could see his kids and his wife would then be a single mother who would possibly qualify fo mortgage assistance.

This is one of the great flaws in the system imo.

:rolleyes:

Yeah why don't all couples split up so they can claim lone parents.

Son Of A Vidic

It's quite possible this guy could have ended up paying his tax contributions, for longer than some here might ever work.

Just an interesting thought.

endabob1

Athlone_Bhoy wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Yeah why don't all couples split up so they can claim lone parents.

I didn't advocate it, in fact I said it was one of the flaws in the system, so less of the patronising rolly eyes thing