Middle class people deciding to go on the dole ?

Big Gerry

We hear alot about the "squeezed middle" who get nothing off the government and have to pay for everything.

I wonder are there any middle class people who just packed in their jobs and went on the dole because they didn't think it was worth commuting 4 hours a day to pay off a 30 year mortgage and paying massive child care bills when they could just go on the dole and get a free house free medical card and have more disposable income than if they were working.

Big Gerry

Big Gerry wrote: »

We hear alot about the "squeezed middle" who get nothing off the government and have to pay for everything.

I wonder are there any middle class people who just packed in their jobs and went on the dole because they didn't think it was worth commuting 4 hours a day to pay off a 30 year mortgage and paying massive child care bills when they could just go on the dole and get a free house free medical card and have more disposable income than if they were working.

We get it. Your life is shlt and you're annoyed that other people seemingly have it easier.

Do us a favour and just quit your job so you can report back to us on how good it was and tell us about how you don't hate your miserable existence anymore. You'll also have plenty of time to read the seventeen million other dole threads on this site.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Big Gerry wrote: »

We hear alot about the "squeezed middle" who get nothing off the government and have to pay for everything.

I wonder are there any middle class people who just packed in their jobs and went on the dole because they didn't think it was worth commuting 4 hours a day to pay off a 30 year mortgage and paying massive child care bills when they could just go on the dole and get a free house free medical card and have more disposable income than if they were working.

No, they don't have the guts

Seriously, there are other ways around that: working from home sorted me out and I know people who dorpped down to part time because they didn't need the extra income,

BuboBubo

[Deleted User] wrote: »

We get it. Your life is shlt and you're annoyed that other people seemingly have it easier.

Do us a favour and just quit your job so you can report back to us on how good it was and tell us about how you don't hate your miserable existence anymore. You'll also have plenty of time to read the seventeen million other dole threads on this site.

Ah! I get great entertainment here when I'm working nights. Sitting in the canteen, two lads a few rows away staring at me as I sit alone laughing at my feckin phone.

Another thread that will disappear into the ether by the morning methinks...

Big Gerry

Deleted User wrote: »

We get it. Your life is shlt and you're annoyed that other people seemingly have it easier.

Do us a favour and just quit your job so you can report back to us on how good it was and tell us about how you don't hate your miserable existence anymore. You'll also have plenty of time to read the seventeen million other dole threads on this site.

I'm not passing judgment I'm just wondering if people have packed in their jobs to go on the dole because it wasn't worth their while working.

c.p.w.g.w

BuboBubo wrote: »

Ah! I get great entertainment here when I'm working nights. Sitting in the canteen, two lads a few rows away staring at me as I sit alone laughing at my feckin phone.

Another thread that will disappear into the ether by the morning methinks...

I might be one of those 2 people...chicken curry @2am

Leg End Reject

The problem is that you need to never work. You still owe the outstanding mortgage even if you quit work, you only qualify for help with the interest when you're in arrears, you don't qualify for social welfare if you voluntarily leave work etc.

It's very hard to leave the rat race once you're in it.

ChikiChiki

I could definitely see the merits in it for some. Used to work with a lad from Tipp who used to spend 2.5 hours a day each way commuting.

Probably was coming out with the guts if 1800 a month before tax and expenses. Bonkers! You would be way better off on the dole than that misery.

Think he was kind of stuck at it providing for a young family that rarely got to see him.

Gretas Gonna Get Ya!

ChikiChiki wrote: »

I could definitely see the merits in it for some. Used to work with a lad from Tipp who used to spend 2.5 hours a day each way commuting.

Probably was coming out with the guts if 1800 a month before tax and expenses. Bonkers! You would be way better off on the dole than that misery.

Think he was kind of stuck at it providing for a young family that rarely got to see him.

But perhaps he made some bad choices, or had a couple of kids when he was young and dumb... then had to live with the consequences of those choices?

I've worked some horrible jobs, with nightmarish start/finish times and commutes... but I don't have kids or a mortgage to pay, so I could walk away when things became too much!

When you scratch beneath the surface, many of these hard luck stories are at least partly self-inflicted by bad life choices... but people are loath to admit it.

Better Than Christ

Big Gerry wrote: »

We hear alot about the "squeezed middle" who get nothing off the government and have to pay for everything.

I wonder are there any middle class people who just packed in their jobs and went on the dole because they didn't think it was worth commuting 4 hours a day to pay off a 30 year mortgage and paying massive child care bills when they could just go on the dole and get a free house free medical card and have more disposable income than if they were working.

Probably not because it's shit being on the dole, especially when you're used to working. If I ever find myself unemployed again, and unable to find a job, I'll find something very high to jump off.

super_furry

Big Gerry wrote: »

We hear alot about the "squeezed middle" who get nothing off the government and have to pay for everything.

I wonder are there any middle class people who just packed in their jobs and went on the dole because they didn't think it was worth commuting 4 hours a day to pay off a 30 year mortgage and paying massive child care bills when they could just go on the dole and get a free house free medical card and have more disposable income than if they were working.

No. People don't do that because it's a **** life.

You seriously seem to have a complete lack of understanding of the housing system if you think you can just rock up, hand the keys back on your mortgaged home and ask for a council house.

Bigbagofcans

Better Than Christ wrote: »

Probably not because it's shit being on the dole, especially when you're used to working. If I ever find myself unemployed again, and unable to find a job, I'll find something very high to jump off.

Not everyone has a miserable life on the dole and we shouldn't assume otherwise.

My observations from some people on the dole:
Some volunteer in a charity shop a couple of days a week which they seem happy enough about.
They keep busy in other ways by doing courses, exercising, making the most of their free time.

If you're out of work, taking time off, retired, it's important to live within your means and keep busy in other ways. If your life is s**t not working, then you have to improve other areas of your life.

Your Face

I love you all.

Trigger Happy

I dont think anyone who is middle class and middle earner would want to be giving it all up to become a sponger. There is a big drop from middle earning to dole and social benefits.
Not to mention pride.

Big Gerry

Leg End Reject wrote: »

The problem is that you need to never work. You still owe the outstanding mortgage even if you quit work, you only qualify for help with the interest when you're in arrears, you don't qualify for social welfare if you voluntarily leave work etc.

It's very hard to leave the rat race once you're in it.

Someone could just declare themselves bankrupt or change their name and let the bank whistle for the mortgage payments.

If someone is on the dole there is nothing the bank can take from them.

Big Gerry

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I dont think anyone who is middle class and middle earner would want to be giving it all up to become a sponger. There is a big drop from middle earning to dole and social benefits.
Not to mention pride.

There is not really a big drop if someone is paying a massive mortgage and huge child care bills they may have no money left at the end of the week once all the bills are paid.

piplip87

Big Gerry wrote: »

There is not really a big drop if someone is paying a massive mortgage and huge child care bills they may have no money left at the end of the week once all the bills are paid.

Yes but at the end of the day the Mortgage will be paid, the kids will be reared and there will be money to spend then.

Rhyme

I think it would affect a persons mental health to go from earning and knowing what you had, you've paid for with your own money to go on the dole. I mean, the purpose of the dole is to help a person get a job, to go against that, long term, would certainly change a person for the worse. Then to raise a child who has known nothing but handouts, incredibly demoralising.

Trigger Happy

Big Gerry wrote: »

There is not really a big drop if someone is paying a massive mortgage and huge child care bills they may have no money left at the end of the week once all the bills are paid.

If they are not taking a big drop then they are not middle class as having very low disposable income, comparable to social welfare, would put them firmly in the working class category.

Loafing Oaf

OP doesn't your inability to come up with any genuine examples of this phenomenon suggest your perceptions of the 'reality' it was supposed to illustrate may be skewed?

machaseh

Being a foreign expat here in Ireland, what would happen if I would quit my job?

I wouldn't be getting on the dole anytime soon here. Most likely I would be evicted from my home and would end up in the streets shooting up dope. No thanks.

I could, of course, return to the Netherlands and live on the dole there. But even there it would take many months of bureaucratic nightmares to finally get on the dole, and then once I am on it I would be obligated to apply for an X amount of jobs every month + do community service labour such as cleaning up parks and the like.

you could also get a job that pays cash, this way you get to go on the dole at the same time.

Its a no-brainer OP

machaseh

Deleted User wrote: »

you could also get a job that pays cash, this way you get to go on the dole at the same time.

Its a no-brainer OP

You could yes, respectable trades such as stealing copper wires or breaking into homes and taking their belongings are generally cash based !

Trigger Happy

Trigger Happy wrote: »

If they are not taking a big drop then they are not middle class as having very low disposable income, comparable to social welfare, would put them firmly in the working class category.

A study was done in 2012 that suggested 44% of Irish families would be better off on the dole.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/esri-refuses-to-reveal-data-that-contradicts-tols-claims-26864918.html

What income would you class as "middle class"? A family on €40 - €50k renting wouldn't experience a huge drop on the dole.

Trigger Happy

Deleted User wrote: »

A study was done in 2012 that suggested 44% of Irish families would be better off on the dole.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/esri-refuses-to-reveal-data-that-contradicts-tols-claims-26864918.html

What income would you class as "middle class"? A family on €40 - €50k renting wouldn't experience a huge drop on the dole.

Disposable income, like I said.

machaseh

machaseh wrote: »

Being a foreign expat here in Ireland, what would happen if I would quit my job?

I wouldn't be getting on the dole anytime soon here. Most likely I would be evicted from my home and would end up in the streets shooting up dope. No thanks.

You shoot up dope

machaseh wrote: »

I could, of course, return to the Netherlands and live on the dole there. But even there it would take many months of bureaucratic nightmares to finally get on the dole, and then once I am on it I would be obligated to apply for an X amount of jobs every month + do community service labour such as cleaning up parks and the like.

Proper order. It should be the same here.

Grab All Association

On JSA you have to be actively seeking work to qualify and will be sanctioned if you don’t.

There’s always going to be an unemployment rate of <4% made up of undesirable characters with numerous past and pending convictions who will never be employed to pick up dog shïte on the street, never mind the likes of Tesco. Some of these people would have some mild form of learning difficulty that would exclude them from qualifying for the likes of Disability Allowance too.

If you want to pack it all in and sponge off the state, get bumped up the housing lists and bought off by the budget every year, then lone parent is the payment you go on by having a child every 7 years.

KiKi III

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Disposable income, like I said.

40-50k is two low wage jobs or one slightly above wage. As a household income, I wouldn’t describe it as middle class.

If it is, it’s on the lower end of it.

Trigger Happy

KiKi III wrote: »

40-50k is two low wage jobs or one slightly above wage. As a household income, I wouldn’t describe it as middle class.

If it is, it’s on the lower end of it.

There is no denying that. If a single person was on 50k with no high rent or mortgage to pay then they would be middle class earner IMO.
And the drop in income to become a sponger would not be something they would willingly do.

Steer55

Big Gerry wrote: »

We hear alot about the "squeezed middle" who get nothing off the government and have to pay for everything.

I wonder are there any middle class people who just packed in their jobs and went on the dole because they didn't think it was worth commuting 4 hours a day to pay off a 30 year mortgage and paying massive child care bills when they could just go on the dole and get a free house free medical card and have more disposable income than if they were working.

It really sounds very awful when you put it like that. I was watching Primetime last night and really felt sorry for the young couple considering emigration due to the awful commute to Dublin and their financial inability to.start a family, if I were in their shoes I would be gone too.

corsav6

machaseh wrote: »

Being a foreign expat here in Ireland, what would happen if I would quit my job?

I wouldn't be getting on the dole anytime soon here. Most likely I would be evicted from my home and would end up in the streets shooting up dope. No thanks.

I could, of course, return to the Netherlands and live on the dole there. But even there it would take many months of bureaucratic nightmares to finally get on the dole, and then once I am on it I would be obligated to apply for an X amount of jobs every month + do community service labour such as cleaning up parks and the like.

Shooting up dope? You're from the Netherlands?