Jobseekers Allowance For New Applicants Under 26 to be Cut

Xenji

Heard this on Today Fm News on my way into work, that they want to cut it from €188 a week to €144 in the budget, when the country was booming you were getting more per week and now that we are ****ed they want to cut it, I am sure this will just cause more strife for people struggling as it is and will greatly increase emigration to boot.

I am not on welfare, but I can see how hard it is for some people as it is, especially with no jobs on the horizon for most, besides becoming slaves for Jobsbridge. When we were booming people really did not have a excuse to not have a job, but it is completely different now and I am sure a lot of people who post here will be affected by this.


The changes will only apply to new entrants to the Live Register and won't affect existing recipients.

At the moment, young people aged 18-21 receive €100 a week. This rate will now be extended to the age of 24.

At present, those aged 22-24 are paid €144. Once a person hits 25, their payment goes up to €188, but this will now be extended to 26.

No reports of Jobsbridge being affected, besides it being extended to 18 months and you can now do up to 3 internships

Extension of the €100 reduced rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Supplementary Welfare Allowance to existing recipients who reach 22, and for new entrants aged up to 24 on or after 1 January 2014.

The reduced rate of €144 will apply to those reaching 25 from January 2014.

davo2001

Hard as it may be cuts do need to be made, lets see if the people on jobseekers will be out on the streets protesting, doubt they will.

EuropeanSon

What would you rather they cut, that will save as much money as this will?

100,000 people (give or take, it was 91,000 in 2010 based on the first thing I saw upon googling it) times 44 times 52 is about €230 million. Quite the saving.

bizmark

You really think a goverment that did all it could to not cut the welfare payment amount by much more than what 10% ? would just go postal on it this year ?

They might cut it another 5/10% in the next two years but i doubt they will knock off 44 euro in a year

Turtyturd

EuropeanSon wrote: »

What would you rather they cut, that will save as much money as this will?

Pensions.

fl4pj4ck

did you mean under 25s? title is misleading then

WinnyThePoo

Not another ****ing Dole Thread.

D'radio said earlier it'd be under 27s getting their dole cut.

TeddyTedson

Isn't it means tested already?

NTMK

It a simple message to anyone under 26 to get the **** out if youre not employed

Jarrod

I'd be surprised to see it cut by that much, although I agree it's an area that we probably need to cut back on.

Having said that, why base it on something arbitrary like age? Seems odd to me. Surely you should get the full whack for the first X number of months/years you're claiming and then it could be gradually reduced to whatever the lower rate will be if you still don't find work.

Jester252

Its not a major cut in the overall scheme. Currently you have to be 25 to get the full rate. Now you have to be over 26 to get the full rate and instead of getting a bump in payment when your 22 you now get the bump when your 24.

super_furry

Means testing children's allowance would be a better start.

Techno_Toaster

The rate for under 25s is already €144 a week. Are they further reducing it?

TeddyTedson

NTMK wrote: »

It a simple message to anyone under 26 to get the **** out if youre not employed

Yeah I don't see why people at 22 shouldn't be entitled to the same amount as a 25 year old if they're living in similar circumstances.
At 25 do they just give you the full amount regardless of means testing?

NTMK

Techno_Toaster wrote: »

The rate for under 25s is already €144 a week. Are they further reducing it?

to €100 for new signups

Xenji

Techno_Toaster wrote: »

The rate for under 25s is already €144 a week. Are they further reducing it?

It will go down to €100 now for them if new to the register.

NTMK

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Yeah I don't see why people at 22 shouldn't be entitled to the same amount as a 25 year old if they're living in similar circumstances.
At 25 do they just give you the full amount regardless of means testing?

iirc yes at 25 you qualify for full payment. Its means tested but at 25 you dont exactly have much wealth amassed

This will mean a €44 reduction for Jobsbridge too and will mean that new grads will have to take up internships (of which quite a lot were grad jobs before JB came into play) paying a grand total of €150 a week

Alannah Gallagher

"To persuade young people to take up low paid work or Jobbridge"

Me hole.

Has it not occurred to these numpties the reason there are no low paid jobs is exactly because of Jobbridge. Jobbridge might be a good idea if it would let people get a foot in the door, on the job training, experience and a reference in specialist areas normally not open to them such as computer programming, accounts, trainee hairdressing etc. But shops offering jobbridge to people who will learn such unskilled menial crap as how to scan a box of Weetabix, face up the diet coke or mop the floor - well - that is taxpayers footing the bill for someone doing a minimum wage job. One less job on the market. One more person doing free work for a private company while the people of the country pick up the bill.

[edit]

Also, by cutting it only to new entrants on the broo (presumably to prevent the many thousands already in this unlucky position from kicking off), they are stopping people taking up temporary work as they know if they do they'll be on crap when the job ends.

Xenji

NTMK wrote: »

iirc yes at 25 you qualify for full payment. Its means tested but at 25 you dont exactly have much wealth amassed

This will mean a €44 reduction for Jobsbridge too and will mean that new grads will have to take up internships (of which quite a lot were grad jobs before JB came into play) paying a grand total of €150 a week

So you are saying that you will only get a extra €6 euro a week now if you are planning on doing a Jobsbridge?

NTMK

Xenji wrote: »

So you are saying that you will only get a extra €6 euro a week now if you are planning on doing a Jobsbridge?

its still €50 more

Current signups <24yo get €194 (€144 + €50)
New signups <24yo will get €150 (€100 + €50)

Fratton Fred

Bad news for Diageo.

R.F.

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Bad news for Diageo.

They will find a way.

Bad news for their kids though

SCOOP 64

Sorry, need to clarified, title thread says "job seekers allowance for over 25.s to be cut",
new signers ? everyone over 25 ?
and how will it effect jobbridge ?

Xenji

SCOOP 64 wrote: »

Sorry to need clarified but title thread says "job seekers allowance for over 25.s to be cut",new signers ? everyone over 25 ?
and how will it effect jobbridge ?

Sorry getting a mod to change that for me, more information seems to be coming in about it every minute, look at the bold parts of the OP

judgefudge

I'm 25, never been on the dole, have worked and been in college for 7 years. I've paid tax and never gotten a grant. I finish college in January with a decent chance of going some kind of work. However, there is undoubtably going to be a period if possibly 2-6 months before I find a suitable job. Now it looks like I'm going to get 144 which, with the bills I have is going to be scraping by. I know that the dole isn't there to make your life luxurious but this is really going to make me struggle.

I want to work, I have incentive to work. I don't understand why this payment will be lowered when the likes of my brother, who has been on the dole for 2-3 years (he's 28) and hasn't even looked for a job, will continue to get 188 per week.

It's really depressing how they've targeted the young and are trying to demoralize the unemployed even more. I have a postgrad degree in a good area and to be honest I just feel like getting the fck out of this country.

Ogham

http://www.moneyguideireland.com/jobseekers-allowance-to-be-cut-for-those-under-26.html

"Currently any claimant aged 18 to 21 gets €100 a week and those aged 22 to 24 get €144 . The full rate of €188 a week is paid to those aged 25 or more.

The proposed Budget 2014 changes would mean that the €100 a week rate will be paid up to the age of 24 (extended by 3 years) . Those aged 25 will get €144 and the full rate of €188 will not be paid until claimants reach 26.
As is usual with Budget welfare cuts – existing claimants are not affected- so someone aged 22 now and getting €144 a week should continue to get that rate until they reach 26. (This needs to be confirmed)

Just for comparison – the Jobseekers allowance in the UK is £56.80 (€68) a week for under 25′s and for those aged 25 or over it is £71.70 (€86) a week.

shruikan2553

I agree that welfare needs some sort of cut or restructuring but graduating from college and then having to move back to rural donegal to try and find a job in an industry that doesnt exist there seems a bit anti productive.

NTMK

judgefudge wrote: »

I want to work, I have incentive to work. I don't understand why this payment will be lowered when the likes of my brother, who has been on the dole for 2-3 years (he's 28) and hasn't even looked for a job, will continue to get 188 per week.

It's really depressing how they've targeted the young and are trying to demoralize the unemployed even more. I have a postgrad degree in a good area and to be honest I just feel like getting the fck out of this country.

It does nothing to hit people who game the system and hits those who take the minimum amount out of the system the worst

It smells to me like the want to push people out of the country or into JB schemes so they can say they tackled Unemployment and Youth unemployment and then pointing to the live register saying look how great we're doing while sweeping emigration figures under the carpet or calling them an optional choice or whatever noonan said

Alannah Gallagher

Ogham wrote: »

http://www.moneyguideireland.com/jobseekers-allowance-to-be-cut-for-those-under-26.html

Just for comparison – the Jobseekers allowance in the UK is £56.80 (€68) a week for under 25′s and for those aged 25 or over it is £71.70 (€86) a week.

That's comparing apples and oranges.

If you compare the cost of shopping in Letterkenny (Donegal) with the cost of shopping in Derry or Strabane, it is far more expensive this side of the border. Also in the North (I assume England is the same) there is no contribution by the unemployed toward their rent.

Xenji

For those who are doing one of the Jobsbridge jobs, when they finish them and lets say they are 25 or younger, will they end up on the new rates if they do not get taken on after it and go back to the social welfare again?

Alannah Gallagher

Another point worth noting. A 23 year old who still lives at home and pays their parent say €20/week is in a much different position to someone who has moved out and has their own rent, food, esb, coal etc to buy. Why isn't this reflected in the payments?

TeddyTedson

I wonder how much wealth over 25s would have to have before they'd be told they weren't be entitled to anything. I have about 20,000 in a savings account.
I guess I'd be entitled to job seekers benefit but if I wasn't and applied to job seekers allowance would they expect me to use up my savings before receiving social welfare?
What about people who get redundancy? Are they expected to use their payout before receiving the dole?

drunkmonkey

shruikan2553 wrote: »

I agree that welfare needs some sort of cut or restructuring but graduating from college and then having to move back to rural donegal to try and find a job in an industry that doesnt exist there seems a bit anti productive.

Well then you don't move back to Donegal, you go where the work is, and if that means moving for 2 or 3 years to get good experience in London, Berlin, Amsterdam where ever it may be then you go, don't arse around in rural Ireland waiting for something to happen it won't.

The incentive needs to be there to get people up off there ass, I don't think it's fair on the graduate above we can all do with a helping hand for up to 6mts to get things going but the day of a life time dole career has to end. I'd be all in favour of a short term scheme for graduates.

If your a person in your prime and your life involves living on handouts from the social welfare, you need to emigrate or re-educate yourself. Somebody above has a 28 year old brother that's done nothing for last 3 years, cut his dole to €100, seriously if he has no intention of making better of his lot why should we bail him out.

SCOOP 64

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I wonder how much wealth over 25s would have to have before they'd be told they weren't be entitled to anything. I have about 20,000 in a savings account.
I guess I'd be entitled to job seekers benefit but if I wasn't and applied to job seekers allowance would they expect me to use up my savings before receiving social welfare?
What about people who get redundancy? Are they expected to use their payout before receiving the dole?

No, i think your safe up to €20,000 on jobseekers allowance.

TeddyTedson

keithob wrote: »

this is madness..... we have the highest suicide rate for young people in europe and now they are gonna hit young people again!!!!

There seems to be a very casual feeling amongst the government that the young folk can just emigrate and it will do them good. Never mind their circumstances just let them go off for a few years and it will do them good.

It seems the young an adult you are the ****ter you're going to get treated.

jack7

Some young people move out of home to get full amount JSA and to get rent allowance. As it is means tested and if parents are working , they would get very little, by moving out they have more money and very little money to add to rent allowance.

judgefudge

My brother,yes I completely agree his dole should be cut. He lives at home still with no car, no bills. The parents don't even charge him rent. Whereas I live on my own with a car, bills, insurance etc. Meaning 144 won't go very far or me while he spends it on beer and cigarettes. And then to be told that it's being done to give me "incentive to work". Fck off. Target people who have been on the dole for a few years if you want to do that. Not the people just signing on.

And as for emigrating. How are people supposed to move to oz (which requires 5000 dollars in the bank for a working visa) or London (one of the most expensive cities to live in) when they've just graduated college. It can take time and it's very difficult and completely depressing. I would have been better off to stay in the job I had before I started college.

Mrs Garth Brooks

€100 for a 24 year old? Did I read that right?

The full rate at 26? Ah sure, next year you will have to be 30.

How do they expect them to get work. Printing cv's can be expensive.

judgefudge

I think they're depending too much on people's parents to help them out. At 25/26 you should be financially independent from parents but this makes it all the more difficult

Cody Pomeray

18-25 year olds are the first generation in living memory who will fare worse than our parents, and worse than older generations.

All across Europe, it is the youth that are being sacrificed for the waste and the mistakes of older generations. 120,000 people (nett), the extreme majority of them young people, have left Ireland in the last 5 years. European youth unemployment is enormous, going as high as 63% in Greece, as Merkel and other near-retirement politicians preach a laissez faire style of economic leadership, and "waiting out" the recession. If you're 50+ and in a well paid job, of course you can afford to wait it out, like a grinning neanderthal. It isn't fair to ask someone who is 23 or 25, with no job opportunities, to wait a few more years while their youth and training prospects recede and life catches up with them.

And of course they know it. Our political leaders are practically opening the doors for young people to leave this society. Youth emigration helps the economy enormously, in the short term. It makes Enda kenny's homework look great for Mrs Merkel. Don't think this policy is completely unrelated to that objective.

shruikan2553

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Well then you don't move back to Donegal, you go where the work is, and if that means moving for 2 or 3 years to get good experience in London, Berlin, Amsterdam where ever it may be then you go, don't arse around in rural Ireland waiting for something to happen it won't.

How do you afford to go where the work is? If you cant afford to live in Galway, Cork or Dublin you'll have to move back home.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

The incentive needs to be there to get people up off there ass, I don't think it's fair on the graduate above we can all do with a helping hand for up to 6mts to get things going but the day of a life time dole career has to end. I'd be all in favour of a short term scheme for graduates.

If your a person in your prime and your life involves living on handouts from the social welfare, you need to emigrate or re-educate yourself. Somebody above has a 28 year old brother that's done nothing for last 3 years, cut his dole to €100, seriously if he has no intention of making better of his lot why should we bail him out.

This should be for everyone. Chances are a graduate would only be short term until they figure out exactly what they can and will do but they need "incentive" while someone else could sit on the dole for over 5 years and nothing is done.

SeaFields

I wonder is this an exercise in 'kite flying' and it wont be as bad tomorrow.

Gongoozler

It's actually funny how the government continue to exactly the opposite to helping. How is targeting new applicants helping? How is targeting the young constructive? Why try push people to do a jobsbridge when they are destroying the lower skilled and lower paid jobs out there that would be perfect for those who can't get jobs? Jesus can they do anything right?

Ogham

Alannah Gallagher wrote: »

That's comparing apples and oranges.

If you compare the cost of shopping in Letterkenny (Donegal) with the cost of shopping in Derry or Strabane, it is far more expensive this side of the border. Also in the North (I assume England is the same) there is no contribution by the unemployed toward their rent.

I was just quoting the site - but Dole is more than double the uk rate here for over 25's but prices are not double here. (More like 25% more).
Even with the max €30 a week towards rent - that is still €158 here compared to €86 in UK. (83% more)

NTMK

judgefudge wrote: »

And as for emigrating. How are people supposed to move to oz (which requires 5000 dollars in the bank for a working visa) or London (one of the most expensive cities to live in) when they've just graduated college. It can take time and it's very difficult and completely depressing. I would have been better off to stay in the job I had before I started college.

In london you'll find work fairly quickly there are lots of jobs around and depending on your qualification you could have work before you come over (i did on a BSc)

for Oz/Canada/US check the skill shortage list you may be able to get around some visa requirements

Whatever you do keep youre head up dont get bogged down as in a rural area that will cripple you

Its not easy but its emigrating is a lot damn better than waiting for whatever scheme the goverment come up with to push you out next

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

So a man who's in his 50's working in the public/private sector could retire this year with a full pension after doing 35 years of service.
So a woman in her 40's who hasn't worked for 15 years can collect every benefit and handout there is.

But if you're 25 then you should get the **** out of the country, or work for free with Jobsbridge or you might get a few crumbs (like covering maternity leave) in the public/private sector. :mad:

Celly Smunt

If the savings are promoted through educating on the dole or putting them in a better position to get back to work I wholey support it.

It might give the scroungers a kick up the hole to get further educated.

stevenmu

judgefudge wrote: »

It's really depressing how they've targeted the young and are trying to demoralize the unemployed even more. I have a postgrad degree in a good area and to be honest I just feel like getting the fck out of this country.

They're not targeting the young, there are cut backs everywhere. I've been working my ass off the last 5 years and have been promoted twice, but with all the taxes and charges I make less now than I did then. There have been big cut backs in spending on health, education, law enforcement, infrastructure etc. Public servants have had their wages slashed.

Everything has to be cut, and almost everything is being cut. Why should young people on the dole be immune to this?

NTMK

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

But if you're 25 then you should get the **** out of the country, or work for free with Jobsbridge or you might get a few crumbs (like covering maternity leave) in the private sector. :mad:

whats even worse is it will affect long term growth as why would a large company atm set up in ireland to take advantage of a large educated workforce of 20-30 year olds when it cann set up in england and do the same along with the added benefits of being in england (infrastructure, English workforce) too

judgefudge

stevenmu wrote: »

Everything has to be cut, and almost everything is being cut. Why should young people on the dole be immune to this?

Not saying young people should be immune. But this cut is specifically targeting younger people. What's the difference between a 24 year old and a 30 year old drawing the dole. They are both adults and should be treated alike. Either cut the payment across the board (by a lesser amount) or cut the payment for people who have been on the dole for an extended period of time. Don't target young people, just out of college, signing on for the first time.