two questions, pension and colege grant related

rugbyman

Hello
i posted this on the pensions forum but had no replies. perhaps someone here can help.




If anybody can answer the following questions i would be obliged.


A My friend, about five years retired from the Gardai has a pension of around 400 euro per week.( this is in his hand ,whether it was higher and was taxed ,I dont know, I suppose that is the first question)

he is an amiable fellow ,and we often get into slight disagreements about the public/private sectors.
he talks about having paid into that pension. I have long felt that those who get paid out of the public purse are not tax payers at all , they simply cost the exchequer their net pay.

However the question here is that even if he had handed over all of his take home pay, added to that which was said to have been deducted from his top line, to say Irish Life ,over the last 40 years, could they have provided him with the pension (index linked) that he has.


B i recently had a debate/arguement with a friend over self employed getting college grants for their children while state employees/reasonably well paid private sector could not.
She maintained that the s/e got more grants and paid less tax than employees. I placed a bet on this being wrong. however as I think about it and even if someone on here can help, is the a possible answer to this question. e.g do we question ioo people/ 1000 people (too much work) Does the govt store such statistics?

I am aware that there are farmers .property owners who get grants because there is no requirement from the govt to sell off (rightly so) and that their are mid earners like nurses /teachers/gardai who even without a spouse earning will not get a grant.

So question b , is there an answer?

Regards ,Rugbyman

andrew

rugbyman wrote: »

Hello
i posted this on the pensions forum but had no replies. perhaps someone here can help.




If anybody can answer the following questions i would be obliged.


A My friend, about five years retired from the Gardai has a pension of around 400 euro per week.( this is in his hand ,whether it was higher and was taxed ,I dont know, I suppose that is the first question)

he is an amiable fellow ,and we often get into slight disagreements about the public/private sectors.
he talks about having paid into that pension. I have long felt that those who get paid out of the public purse are not tax payers at all , they simply cost the exchequer their net pay.

However the question here is that even if he had handed over all of his take home pay, added to that which was said to have been deducted from his top line, to say Irish Life ,over the last 40 years, could they have provided him with the pension (index linked) that he has.


B i recently had a debate/arguement with a friend over self employed getting college grants for their children while state employees/reasonably well paid private sector could not.
She maintained that the s/e got more grants and paid less tax than employees. I placed a bet on this being wrong. however as I think about it and even if someone on here can help, is the a possible answer to this question. e.g do we question ioo people/ 1000 people (too much work) Does the govt store such statistics?

I am aware that there are farmers .property owners who get grants because there is no requirement from the govt to sell off (rightly so) and that their are mid earners like nurses /teachers/gardai who even without a spouse earning will not get a grant.

So question b , is there an answer?

Regards ,Rugbyman

This isn't an economics question, and if you didn't get an answer on the pensions forum you're probably not gonna get an answer here I'm afraid.