Government will pay me to play xbox but not to go to college

Durz0 Blint

Just a few examples of how this country seems to keep incentivising me to not work and live off social welfare rather than better myself.

1.
I was unemployed for several months, found a part time job and went back to college.

Now if I was unemployed or did my part time job and spent my spare time doing nothing/playing xbox they will give me €140 a week.

But because I work part time and decide to spend my spare time going to college they take that money away. There reasoning is that I wasn't unemployed/on job seekers long enough and so should have to waste a year doing nothing to be eligible.


Anyone else have any weird/silly incentives the government currently has in place.

Durz0 Blint

2. The debt trap

I could not afford college the first time so had to leave before completing

Now if I want to return to college I will have to pay more (now on full fees). I cannot get a grant as they do not consider familly debt in their calculations. (fathers business collapsed and we have massive debt). If he could not afford reduced fees then we shall charge him full fees seems to be their logic.

Why is debt not considered when calculating whether a person can afford college?

Why are other people's actions making it harder for me to educate myself

I

tallaghtmick

Awaits the usual everyone on the dole should be shot dead and their souls harvested for science etc.

Cookie_Monster

paying people for having kids

Guy:Incognito

If your spare time is spent in college then your not available or looking for work. Cant really get jobseekers payment for that.

Sh1tbag OToole

There is little incentive to better yourself in Ireland. The system really does promote sitting on your hole

Soon they'll be taxing you for doing a bit of DIY and adding an extension to your house. You have to pay them every year for improvement work that you did to your own house

hames

You can't expect there to be no minimum waiting time before you're entitled to the back to education thing.

It's designed to target those who might be in danger of being long term unemployed - you can't have a government handing out that much money to everyone on the dole who wants to go to college. sure any smart person would just go on the dole for a week or two and then sign up for a paid university degree, in that case.

madness.

donvito99

Are you gonna use a new post everytime for your points?

AnonoBoy

donvito99 wrote: »

Are you gonna use a new post everytime for your points?

Government won't let him make more than one point per post.

Just another example of The Man putting us down.

Durz0 Blint

hames wrote: »

You can't expect there to be no minimum waiting time before you're entitled to the back to education thing.

It's designed to target those who might be in danger of being long term unemployed - you can't have a government handing out that much money to everyone on the dole who wants to go to college. sure any smart person would just go on the dole for a week or two and then sign up for a paid university degree, in that case.

madness.

You make a good point but as someone who always seems to be constantly sold short due to various loopholes in our system and has had to constantly struggle against a system that seems uncaring and at times illogical, all in the name of bettering myself, I cannot help but feel there is something seriously wrong with how things currently are.

Where do they get the lengths for the various social welfare from, the length they chose that a person must be on jobseekers just seems so arbitrary and makes no sense. It's tough when I would have a much better standard of living if I stayed at home each day playing video games.

paddy147

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

There is little incentive to better yourself in Ireland. The system really does promote sitting on your hole

Soon they'll be taxing you for doing a bit of DIY and adding an extension to your house. You have to pay them every year for improvement work that you did to your own house

Thats the FG/Labour way for you.:mad:

Gongoozler

I agree to a point that the system is badly set up. however, how many chances at college (for free) are you meant to get? the government want you to get a paying job, and put yourself through college.
How long have you been on the dole? how many jobs have you applied for? Is this really your only option? they're not there to make it easy for you.

paddy147

How many jobs have FG/Labour actually created themselves for this country so far?????

Fuh Q

I work 3 nights a week, I applied for a full time day job, got interview, got offered job, before I said yes I calculated how much I would earn over 5 days working in new job, then took away what I earn now + JSA and guess what ? Im better off working part time.
Wheres the incentive ?

awec

When you say "spare time in college", do you mean that you were at college full time or part time?

dodderangler

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

paying people for having kids

Paying foreigners to come over to claim it is worse and then paying for their kids and also their other I.D's so they'll claim under name of someone that don't fcuking exist

longhalloween

Government spends billions on providing free primary and secondary education for all children in this country, and when they're old enough to pay the money back they're being told to leave and pay their taxes to the Australian/Canadian governments instead.

token101

Durz0 Blint wrote: »

Just a few examples of how this country seems to keep incentivising me to not work and live off social welfare rather than better myself.

1.
I was unemployed for several months, found a part time job and went back to college.

Now if I was unemployed or did my part time job and spent my spare time doing nothing/playing xbox they will give me €140 a week.

But because I work part time and decide to spend my spare time going to college they take that money away. There reasoning is that I wasn't unemployed/on job seekers long enough and so should have to waste a year doing nothing to be eligible.


Anyone else have any weird/silly incentives the government currently has in place.

You're employed aren't you? So you get wages? So if you're working 20 hours a week, you're on 160 or so at least? That's more than 140. There's your incentive. It's your responsibility to work and support yourself, not the government's.

Downlinz

longhalloween wrote: »

Government spends billions on providing free primary and secondary education for all children in this country, and when they're old enough to pay the money back they're being told to leave and pay their taxes to the Australian/Canadian governments instead.

Society takes part of the blame for that, emigration is far too socially acceptable. There should be an element of guilt to it because as you said any young person who emigrates after spending their entire life in our education system has wasted a huge amount of resources that could be spent elsewhere.

I personally know a lot of people who've done this without even attempting to look for a job in Ireland and a girl who quit a very good job here so she could have the craic down in Australia.

Durz0 Blint

Durz0 Blint wrote: »

You make a good point but as someone who always seems to be constantly sold short due to various loopholes in our system and has had to constantly struggle against a system that seems uncaring and at times illogical, all in the name of bettering myself, I cannot help but feel there is something seriously wrong with how things currently are.

Where do they get the lengths for the various social welfare from, the length they chose that a person must be on jobseekers just seems so arbitrary and makes no sense. It's tough when I would have a much better standard of living if I stayed at home each day playing video games.

But why should the government give you any money? They gave you money when you had no job. Now you have a job and they don't give you money. As someone who has never claimed a penny from the state, I'm finding it quite hard to understand why you feel hard done by. We all know that the dole is supposed to be for people who really have no other options, not as an alternative to work. We all know that some people abuse it. What's that to you? Why do you feel entitled to support from the state now? Why are you 'sold short'?

I do agree with you that it the government make it too easy to choose dole over work, but the solution to that is the cut the dole (and risk cutting off vulnerable people who really need it), not to give out money to everyone who thinks they deserve a free ride.

Grayson

hames wrote: »

You can't expect there to be no minimum waiting time before you're entitled to the back to education thing.

It's designed to target those who might be in danger of being long term unemployed - you can't have a government handing out that much money to everyone on the dole who wants to go to college. sure any smart person would just go on the dole for a week or two and then sign up for a paid university degree, in that case.

madness.

Not madness. Unaffordable. But not madness. I can understand why there's a minimum waiting period. But the strange thing is that it's counter productive sometimes. i know people who deliberately signed on for a certain period of time, just so they could go back to college.

I'm in college full time. I've worked full time through the whoe thing. balancing shifts here and there. Pulling all nighters just to get assignments in and using holidays for exams. The last time i had time off that wasn't work or college was august. And it's august before I will again.

The reason I'm not on the third level allowance is because i didn't want to be unemployed for 6 months. But I wish I had.

Like I said, I understand why it's not available to all, especially in a recession where there's so much the money could be spent on, but it'd be nice if it was