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Garda Sergeant can't afford food

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,226 ✭✭✭angelfire9


    MagicSean wrote: »
    It's not suitable for calculating a Gardas wage. Here's my own calculations.

    Gross pay €47,314.95
    Rent allowance €4,113.75
    Boot allowance €123.04
    Uniform allowance €226.00
    Saturday allowance €538.46
    Sunday allowance €4,367.53
    Evening allowance €554.82
    Night allowance €5,392.84
    Total Income €62,631.39

    Pension levy 5% 15001 -20,000 €250.00
    Pension levy 10% up to 60k €4,000.00
    Pension levy 10.5% on over 60k €276.30
    Total pension levy €4,526.30

    Taxable Income €58,105.09

    PRSI (4% over 6,604) €2,060.04
    USC 2% on €10,036 €200.72
    USC 4% up to €16,016 €239.20
    USC 7% over €16,016 €2,946.24
    PAYE 20% €6,560.00
    PAYE 41% €7,075.09
    Pension contribution 5% €2,905.25
    Basic Deductions €21,986.54

    Net pay after basic deductions €36,118.55

    Now take that as a weekly figure of €694.58 because gardai get payed weekly
    Mortgage €323 a week
    Net pay is now down to €371 per week
    Medical Aid (which is not optional) 62.38 a week
    Net pay now down to €309 or €1236 a month

    Lets look at the Utility Bills
    Mobile probably 30 quid a month (and thats being cheap) and yes a mobile is required for work
    Eircom for broadband and house phone (The kids will want the internet for studying) 40 quid a month
    Electricity 50 quid a month seem reasonable??
    Gas or Home Heating lets allow another 50 quid a month
    insurances (lets allow 400 a year for the car and 400 a year for the house being generous) say €70 a month (rounding up)

    So that is bills of €240 a month
    Leaving the family with €996 a month or 249 a week
    petrol probably costs him 60 quid a week leaving him with 189

    Not too far off the figure MABS looked at
    And i haven't included a sky subscription
    Or Bin Charges
    Or the Household tax
    And i've underestimated most of the bills


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 34,915 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    So how come everyone earning less than 30 grand a year isn't dead? :confused:


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,645 ✭✭✭✭El Weirdo


    angelfire9 wrote: »
    Now take that as a weekly figure of €694.58 because gardai get payed weekly
    Mortgage €323 a week
    Net pay is now down to €371 per week
    Medical Aid (which is not optional) 62.38 a week
    Net pay now down to €309 or €1236 a month

    Lets look at the Utility Bills
    Mobile probably 30 quid a month (and thats being cheap) and yes a mobile is required for work
    Eircom for broadband and house phone (The kids will want the internet for studying) 40 quid a month
    Electricity 50 quid a month seem reasonable??
    Gas or Home Heating lets allow another 50 quid a month
    insurances (lets allow 400 a year for the car and 400 a year for the house being generous) say €70 a month (rounding up)

    So that is bills of €240 a month
    Leaving the family with €996 a month or 249 a week
    petrol probably costs him 60 quid a week leaving him with 189

    Not too far off the figure MABS looked at
    Add the children's allowance for 3/4 kids (depending if the eldest is still in FTE) onto that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,699 ✭✭✭bamboozle


    angelfire9 wrote: »
    Now take that as a weekly figure of €694.58 because gardai get payed weekly
    Mortgage €323 a week
    Net pay is now down to €371 per week
    Medical Aid (which is not optional) 62.38 a week
    Net pay now down to €309 or €1236 a month

    Lets look at the Utility Bills
    Mobile probably 30 quid a month (and thats being cheap) and yes a mobile is required for work
    Eircom for broadband and house phone (The kids will want the internet for studying) 40 quid a month
    Electricity 50 quid a month seem reasonable??
    Gas or Home Heating lets allow another 50 quid a month
    insurances (lets allow 400 a year for the car and 400 a year for the house being generous) say €70 a month (rounding up)

    So that is bills of €240 a month
    Leaving the family with €996 a month or 249 a week
    petrol probably costs him 60 quid a week leaving him with 189

    Not too far off the figure MABS looked at

    you conveniently forgot mortgage interest relief 140 a month, children's allowance 422 a month that's an extra 165 to add to your 189 a week, leaving 354 a week to feed a family of 5.

    Boohoo.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 632 ✭✭✭Forest Demon


    The problem with this is the kind of bull**** story that casts doubt on genuine people struggling.

    The only way they are struggling based on the figures shown even taking the mortgage into account is that they have a lot of private debt. If it is credit card, personal loans and car loans that are causing the issue then they need to sell some stuff and live within their means. The salary is not the issue. Its not the issue that they cannot live on a Garda salary.

    The headline of "Garda borrowed too much and cannot live with debt" does not have the same ring to it.

    What do they want? a rise to pay for more extravagance? Without a load of private debt the story does not make sense.

    The salary is not the problem.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 9,424 ✭✭✭Heroditas


    Also conveniently forgotten is the wife's tax credits which the husband would benefit from.


  • Registered Users Posts: 436 ✭✭wendydoll


    angelfire9 wrote: »
    Eircom for broadband and house phone (The kids will want the internet for studying) 40 quid a month

    Sorry now but kids will want the internet for study. Most of us here grew up without the internet and we all turned out ok. Easy come, easy go.

    It would be nice to have the internet but I'd rather my kids have proper food in their bellies rather than access to the internet to "study/ facebook"


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    bamboozle wrote: »
    you conveniently forgot mortgage interest relief 140 a month, children's allowance 422 a month that's an extra 165 to add to your 189 a week, leaving 354 a week to feed a family of 5.

    Boohoo.

    My mortgage is for 270k. I am on a low enough interest rate. Relief is deducted at source, It costs 1100 per month. 1400 is very likely to be the rate after relief is deducted for someone who bought in 2005.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,950 ✭✭✭Milk & Honey


    hawkelady wrote: »
    Afaik .... Guards are paid weekly.

    Guards are paid weekly AND monthly. Basic pay is paid weekly and every month the additional allowances are paid.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,645 ✭✭✭✭El Weirdo


    bamboozle wrote: »
    you conveniently forgot mortgage interest relief 140 a month, children's allowance 422 a month that's an extra 165 to add to your 189 a week, leaving 354 a week to feed a family of 5.

    Boohoo.
    To be fair, they might not qualify for Mortgage TRS any longer as they did buy the house 7 years ago.

    Still. Anyone that can't feed a family of 6 on ~300 quid per week is doing something drastically wrong. Many families survive on less.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,318 ✭✭✭Fishooks12


    wendydoll wrote: »
    Sorry now but kids will want the internet for study. Most of us here grew up without the internet and we all turned out ok. Easy come, easy go.

    It would be nice to have the internet but I'd rather my kids have proper food in their bellies rather than access to the internet to "study/ facebook"

    The internet is pretty crucial to education these days

    Completely pathetic insinuation that the children would just use it for facebook too btw


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,279 ✭✭✭PaulKK


    bamboozle wrote: »
    you conveniently forgot mortgage interest relief 140 a month, children's allowance 422 a month that's an extra 165 to add to your 189 a week, leaving 354 a week to feed a family of 5.

    Boohoo.

    Mortgage interest relief lasts 7 years so that would be finished.

    There's also car tax and servicing, tv licence, tv subscription, kids school books, possibly management fees, bin charges etc to pay too.

    Not saying its right or anything, but you could easily see how they would have 109 left for food per week.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 38,035 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gumbo


    K-9 wrote: »
    I'm getting 43k here, mortgage of 17k still leaves 26k or 500 a week. I suppose if they've high travel and bills €100 a week to live on is very possible.

    That incorrectly estimates my pay!
    Dont think it works, or i may be doing something completely wrong!


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,424 ✭✭✭Heroditas


    Which "prestigious" university are the parents talking about?
    It must be somewhere like Yale or Harvard because we don't have any prestigious universities in this country:confused:


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,950 ✭✭✭Milk & Honey


    A mortgage isnt essential.

    They could rent for less than they are currently paying

    Quite likely they are in negative equity (they bought in 2005) so can't sell and move.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,096 ✭✭✭✭the groutch


    it's a case of either being hidden debt we're not being told about, or they're still living like it's 2005, and have been effectively burying their heads in the sand for the last 4 years.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Father Damo


    The article seems to hint this as recession related.


    If anything this Garda was almost certainly on a lower wage seven years ago when he bought the house than he is now :confused: This family is likely taking in more per year than it was in the boom years when they bought the house!

    I smell a rat.


  • Registered Users Posts: 43,271 ✭✭✭✭K-9


    kceire wrote: »
    That incorrectly estimates my pay!
    Dont think it works, or i may be doing something completely wrong!

    Seems to leave out the old pension deduction.

    Mad Men's Don Draper : What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.



  • Registered Users Posts: 23,131 ✭✭✭✭ted1


    IT says i get more than i get.

    must look into it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 528 ✭✭✭telecaster


    So how come everyone earning less than 30 grand a year isn't dead? :confused:

    Its a good question.

    Closest to a reasonable answer I can come up with is that someone earning that figure wouldnt have been given a mortgage that required repayments of Eur1,400 per month.

    The other bills are uniform though (pun sort of intended)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,396 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    One thing that really gets on my goat is the constant reference to the gross salary of €65k. Obviously people in the private sector have no understanding of the scale of deductions from public service salaries, over and above private sector salaries.

    But to put in simple terms, the net take home pay for a public servant on that salary is €37,500.

    This is identical to the net take home pay that a private sector employee on €54,000 would receive.

    Now I know only too well that a large part of the contribution is for the pension. But the pension has nothing to with their cost of living today.

    The fact of the matter is that the pension deduction is very large, and unlike the private sector it is not tax deductible, and unlike the private sector it is non-discretionary.

    In this case, the family is paying €17,000 a year on mortgage.

    That leaves them €20,000 a year to live on. That is not a lot in this country.

    It might seem like a lot if you are single and its pure disposable income.

    But when you are trying to raise a family, it is not a lot.

    And when they try to raise the point that they are struggling, which they are, they get sneered at large scale by people who wont even examine the facts.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,861 ✭✭✭Irishcrx


    65k a year and moaning?? Give me a break , now where did I put that Violin...

    A person on the dole earns at €180 a week earns €8,640 year and may still have to try support a mortgage and family. Seriously f**k off Mr.Sergent.


  • Registered Users Posts: 943 ✭✭✭Real Life


    pretty ridiculous, my father makes just over 20,000 a year to provide for a family. luckily i work now too so he doesn't have to worry about me anymore.
    I don't know how anyone can complain about 65,000 a year.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭Where To


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    One thing that really gets on my goat is the constant reference to the gross salary of €65k. Obviously people in the private sector have no understanding of the scale of deductions from public service salaries, over and above private sector salaries.

    But to put in simple terms, the net take home pay for a public servant on that salary is €37,500.

    This is identical to the net take home pay that a private sector employee on €54,000 would receive.

    Now I know only too well that a large part of the contribution is for the pension. But the pension has nothing to with their cost of living today.

    The fact of the matter is that the pension deduction is very large, and unlike the private sector it is not tax deductible, and unlike the private sector it is non-discretionary.

    In this case, the family is paying €17,000 a year on mortgage.

    That leaves them €20,000 a year to live on. That is not a lot in this country.

    It might seem like a lot if you are single and its pure disposable income.

    But when you are trying to raise a family, it is not a lot.

    And when they try to raise the point that they are struggling, which they are, they get sneered at large scale by people who wont even examine the facts.
    Why should we have any sympathy for someone just because they are incapable of properly managing their personal finances?

    €37000 is a good sum to live on.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,676 ✭✭✭strandroad


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    That leaves them €20,000 a year to live on. That is not a lot in this country.

    Now add 10k overtime and multiple child allowance they say they get.
    And still they are -300 a week? There must be either additional debt or living beyond their means - two or three cars, private schooling etc.

    I don't understand what the garda's wife wants to achieve here anyway. Does she want her husband's salary to be hiked to cover their badly planned expenses when the figures don't add up? Or perhaps their mortgage to be wiped, while of course keeping the house?
    Why won't she look for part-time work? If they finished expanding their family seven years ago, all children are well into their school years now. How can she leave the work option out completely and watch her children eating cornflakes for meals, as she claims?

    Something doesn't add up here; the family are probably just a sob story to illustrate how people came to rely on PS allowances, child allowance etc as their income.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,396 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    Irishcrx wrote: »
    65k a year and moaning?? Give me a break , now where did I put that Violin...

    A person on the dole earns at €180 a week earns €8,640 year and may still have to try support a mortgage and family. Seriously f**k off Mr.Sergent.


    Exactly the misanalysis I was talking about.

    Apples and oranges.

    Comparing Gross Pay to Net Pay.

    A person on the dole has their rent paid. A person on the dole has childrens allowance. A person on the dole has a medical card.

    This persons net disposable income would fall by about €5000 if they quit their job and signed on the dole. And in exchange for that he could sit at home and hang out with the kids, instead of doing what I would imagine is a bloody tough job. if I was in his position, I'd be taking that trade.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,950 ✭✭✭Milk & Honey


    Irishcrx wrote: »
    65k a year and moaning?? Give me a break , now where did I put that Violin...

    A person on the dole earns at €180 a week earns €8,640 year and may still have to try support a mortgage and family. Seriously f**k off Mr.Sergent.

    A person on the dole does not earn anything? They are given money. There are additional payments for dependants adult or child and additional assistance for housing. If there is a mortgage most of their interest will be paid.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,396 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    mhge wrote: »
    Now add 10k overtime and multiple child allowance they say they get.
    And still they are -300 a week? There must be either additional debt or living beyond their means - two or three cars, private schooling etc.

    I don't understand what the garda's wife wants to achieve here anyway. Does she want her husband's salary to be hiked to cover their badly planned expenses when the figures don't add up? Or perhaps their mortgage to be wiped, while of course keeping the house?
    Why won't she look for part-time work? If they finished expanding their family seven years ago, all children are well into their school years now. How can she leave the work option out completely and watch her children eating cornflakes for meals, as she claims?

    Something doesn't add up here; the family are probably just a sob story to illustrate how people came to rely on PS allowances, child allowance etc as their income.

    Where'd you come up with 10k overtime.....why not just make it 100k if you are going to make up figures.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,149 ✭✭✭✭fits


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    One thing that really gets on my goat is the constant reference to the gross salary of €65k. Obviously people in the private sector have no understanding of the scale of deductions from public service salaries, over and above private sector salaries.

    But to put in simple terms, the net take home pay for a public servant on that salary is €37,500.

    This is identical to the net take home pay that a private sector employee on €54,000 would receive.

    Now I know only too well that a large part of the contribution is for the pension. But the pension has nothing to with their cost of living today.

    The fact of the matter is that the pension deduction is very large, and unlike the private sector it is not tax deductible, and unlike the private sector it is non-discretionary.

    In this case, the family is paying €17,000 a year on mortgage.

    That leaves them €20,000 a year to live on. That is not a lot in this country.

    It might seem like a lot if you are single and its pure disposable income.

    But when you are trying to raise a family, it is not a lot.

    And when they try to raise the point that they are struggling, which they are, they get sneered at large scale by people who wont even examine the facts.

    Hear hear, I am pretty disgusted with some of the attitudes on this thread.

    65k in public sector ( not equivalent to private) to run a family and service a mortgage is not a lot.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,670 ✭✭✭Rascasse


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    One thing that really gets on my goat is the constant reference to the gross salary of €65k. Obviously people in the private sector have no understanding of the scale of deductions from public service salaries, over and above private sector salaries.

    But to put in simple terms, the net take home pay for a public servant on that salary is €37,500.

    This is identical to the net take home pay that a private sector employee on €54,000 would receive.

    Now I know only too well that a large part of the contribution is for the pension. But the pension has nothing to with their cost of living today.

    The fact of the matter is that the pension deduction is very large, and unlike the private sector it is not tax deductible, and unlike the private sector it is non-discretionary.

    In this case, the family is paying €17,000 a year on mortgage.

    That leaves them €20,000 a year to live on. That is not a lot in this country.

    It might seem like a lot if you are single and its pure disposable income.

    But when you are trying to raise a family, it is not a lot.

    And when they try to raise the point that they are struggling, which they are, they get sneered at large scale by people who wont even examine the facts.

    Yes the public sector pension deductions may be higher, but his actual salary is €51,084 not the €75k he ends up with. Some nice public sector allowances there.


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