Garda Sergeant can't afford food

Boombastic · 17-10-2012 5:38pm

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

...............Cutting back on electiricity and saving heat should be a consideration. Light more fires, wear more insulating clothing.
.................

A woman on Liveline earlier got very mad when someone suggested she get a bag of coal and light a fire, it was beneath her. Yet this same woman wouldn't work because she wanted to be able to be at home with her child, survived on benefits and had been to the SVDP begging for a hand out,

but the thoughts of her having to eat porridge and light a fire to heat herself angered her greatly

Better to sit in the cold and starve it seems:rolleyes: I smell the same sense of entitlement off this story

*posted from my ipad Jacuzzi with a cuban cigar in my hand and a forrero roche in my mouth, but I soooo poor:(

Fuinseog · 17-10-2012 5:39pm

remember the elderly couple who were fighting the bailiffs trying to evict them and genuinely hoping for public sympathy. they owed millions and only had thirty other homes. where were they supposed to live if evicted?

WoollyRedHat · 17-10-2012 5:41pm

Boombastic wrote: »

A woman on Liveline earlier got very mad when someone suggested she get a bag of coal and light a fire, it was beneath her. Yet this same woman wouldn't work because she wanted to be able to be at home with her child, survived on benefits and had been to the SVDP begging for a hand out,

but the thoughts of her having to eat porridge and light a fire to heat herself angered her greatly

Better to sit in the cold and starve it seems:rolleyes: I smell the same sense of entitlement off this story

*posted from my ipad Jacuzzi with a cuban cigar in my hand and a forrero roche in my mouth, but I soooo poor:(

The prospect of buying coal,far too heavy for my poor arms, and it's so so dirty, excuse me while I keel over to die in this sewer here.

Fuinseog · 17-10-2012 5:42pm

Jaysoose wrote: »

Its Stay-At-home-Mum, we are not in america.

the term 'mum' used to be used only by Protestant and people in South Dublin. it seems to have spread. the term 'ma' is not just used by scobes.

Fuinseog · 17-10-2012 5:44pm

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

The prospect of buying coal,far too heavy for my poor arms, and it's so so dirty, excuse me while I keel over to die in this sewer here.

I firmly believe people in this country had more get up and go before they learnt they could talk to joe, who seems to solve all their problems.

jackal · 17-10-2012 5:46pm

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Nobody will know the full circumstances of this Sergeant and his family. I can see why they might have only €109 a week, but i can also see why he should have more.

Look, by any measure, a salary of €65k is a very, very good salary. Compared to other married couples, with one person earning, that family is in the top 10% of earners in the country: http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/statistical/2011/index.html

You mentioned all the expenses but failed to mention the €500 he gets monthly for working 6 10 hour shifts in a month. What other allowances is there that have not been mentioned?

This is not the first time the Irish Media has tried to play the poor mouth with "its kind of people". It tried it with the fella in Galway who was reduced to letting his children eat the cardboard from cereal boxes. Turned out to be a sham of a thing, a guy on the dole choosing to pay his mortgage rather than feed his kids. Too "proud" to seek the assistance he was due from the government, but not too proud to write about it and have his story all over the national media. And the media and talk shows lapped it up.

The media tried it again with the "Elderly couple Evicted in Killiney" story. And they lapped it up again. It was quietly dropped when it emerged that far from the famine stories the newspapers breathlessly equated them with, they were in fact "owners" of a huge property empire.

Now we get the same crap, from a woman who should be spending less time writing to TD's and newspapers, and more time adjusting her families lifestyle and budget to reality - a reality in which they are better of than 90% of other married couples with a single earner.

steddyeddy · 17-10-2012 5:54pm

If hes broke hes broke. I dont see why people are gloating. If a mans fallen on hard times he deserves our sympathy.

dudara · 17-10-2012 5:58pm

I won't go into the ins and outs of why I actually give credence to this story. I don't know the full facts & figures, but the basic salary analysis done here by some posters is in the right ballpark.

Forgetting this specific story, this article is exposing a major problem in Ireland. Middle class families are really struggling. A salary of €65k sounds great, but what happens when your outgoings just don't match? And the government will take more from middle-class families in the next budget. People on that kind of money are already paying over 50% in taxes, etc.

It's a whole flipping timebomb, and irrespective of what you think about this particular story, I think it's pretty widespread across the country. Public and private sector alike.

And yes -that woman should probably be working (assuming that it makes economic sense to do so).

charlemont · 17-10-2012 5:59pm

If they can't manage on that money then they must be short on brain cell's.

Or just plain greedy !!

Boombastic · 17-10-2012 6:05pm

dudara wrote: »

................. A salary of €65k sounds great, but what happens when your outgoings just don't match? ...............

This is just a stab in the dark and I'm not a financial adviser, but one solution may be to reduce your outgoings:eek:

Celticfire · 17-10-2012 6:11pm

Boombastic wrote: »

This is just a stab in the dark and I'm not a financial adviser, but one solution may be to reduce your outgoings:eek:

And if MABS can't find outgoings to cut what makes you so sure they can?

Scortho · 17-10-2012 6:11pm

steddyeddy wrote: »

If hes broke hes broke. I dont see why people are gloating. If a mans fallen on hard times he deserves our sympathy.

If a man falls on hard times earning what he's earning, he needs to be thought what a spreadsheet is and how to make a budget!

Then he has to learn to live within it!

As I've said earlier there is way more to this story than what meets the eye!

HellFireClub · 17-10-2012 6:13pm

dudara wrote: »

I won't go into the ins and outs of why I actually give credence to this story. I don't know the full facts & figures, but the basic salary analysis done here by some posters is in the right ballpark.

Forgetting this specific story, this article is exposing a major problem in Ireland. Middle class families are really struggling. A salary of €65k sounds great, but what happens when your outgoings just don't match? And the government will take more from middle-class families in the next budget. People on that kind of money are already paying over 50% in taxes, etc.

It's a whole flipping timebomb, and irrespective of what you think about this particular story, I think it's pretty widespread across the country. Public and private sector alike.

And yes -that woman should probably be working (assuming that it makes economic sense to do so).

I would completely disagree that a family with a primary income (as in one spouse is earning that kind of money, for all we know, the other spouse could be working), is even a "middle class" family???

This is the kind of warped logic that the Richard Boyd Barrett's of the world come out with regularly, that you can have two people earning 100K between them, but such extremely fortunate people, are "the working class" or "the middle class". Someone on 65K a year is more fortunate than most in this country at the moment.

I'm personally sick to my two front títs of public sector whingers, on money that I could only personally dream about at the moment, getting so well looked after, for a fraction of the hours that I work.

It seems to me in this country lately, that it is those who are the best looked after, that have the most to say about hardship and it is those who are actually really struggling, that are just trying to keep their heads down and get on with it.

Smidge · 17-10-2012 6:14pm

Celticfire wrote: »

And if MABS can't find outgoings to cut what makes you so sure they can?

You do know how mabs works?
You tell them what YOU spend, they write it down, count it up, and if you have more going out than coming thats what they write down.

HellFireClub · 17-10-2012 6:18pm

dudara wrote: »

I think it's pretty widespread across the country. Public and private sector alike.

Yeah right, where's my Croke Park Agreement?!? Half a million people have lost jobs and have taken the ultimate pay cut, yet if you happen to be public sector instead of private sector you get your whole career and income selfishly protected under the threat of "industrial walfare", for fúcks sake, these guys are still getting automatic pay increments!!!

This government are so thick, they haven't even worked out that they can put PS pay no problem, because strikes don't work if there is no public support for a strike and lets face up to facts here, who is going to support someone on 65K a year going on strike at the moment?

Potential-Monke · 17-10-2012 6:19pm

jackal wrote: »

You mentioned all the expenses but failed to mention the €500 he gets monthly for working 6 10 hour shifts in a month. What other allowances is there that have not been mentioned?

That €500 a month is not guaranteed. The "big cheque", as it's called, is the allowences paid for working unsocial hours, nights and weekends. Depending on what happened in that month, you might only get some or none of it. With the new rota it varies over a 5 month recurring period. If you're out sick, if you had to take a day off for compensatory rest due to court, etc, or if you've used some of your leave entitlement, you won't get all of it.

Most other allowences are automatically included in your gross pay, so outside of the "big cheque", there is little to no other allowences that are guaranteed (there are allowences for being away from the District, not getting breaks, overnight, etc, but these cannot be estimated as there is no guarantee of getting any of them).

I can't comment on family circumstances, as i live in my own house by myself. I can comment on that fact that, even though i've received 4 pay increases as per my contract and agreements, i am taking home less than i was 3 years ago.

Celticfire · 17-10-2012 6:26pm

Smidge wrote: »

You do know how mabs works?
You tell them what YOU spend, they write it down, count it up, and if you have more going out than coming thats what they write down.

MABS works with clients by supporting them in drawing up realistic budgets and maximising their incomes. MABS also supports clients in dealing with their debts according to their budgets

Thankfully I've never had to go to find out what MABS do.

The picture painted by the Mabs adviser is not quite as cheerful. She calculated the family’s net pay and child benefit total at €807.37. After totting up the mortgage payment and items such as fuel, food, clothing and footwear, education/medical/ transport, bin charges etc, she saw no way of getting their outgoings below €1,100 a week.

Robbo · 17-10-2012 6:29pm

The mortgage is over the next 25 years and her husband is over 50, Jean wrote.
.....
Seven years ago, said Jean, the price of their new house included €36,000 stamp duty.

Working backwards from the Stamp Duty figure, and assuming they weren't first time buyers, a €480,000 30-year (or 32 if one's to trust the strange maths at work in the article) mortgage was given to a man in his late 40s who was in a job that allowed him to retire at 60. Now I know the banks were handing out insane mortgages to Gardai but one where it was expected that a large part of the duration of the mortgage was to be covered by a pension?

Somehow I think there's more at play here.

Chucky the tree · 17-10-2012 6:31pm

Celticfire wrote: »

Thankfully I've never had to go to find out what MABS do.

Love to know how they calculated that. Were they simply handed receipts or did she tell them? Would MABS actually tell someone to start shopping in Tesco/Lidl/Aldi instead?

UCDVet · 17-10-2012 6:44pm

LoL - the guys makes 65k. Forgive me if I don't shed a tear.

Meanwhile, my broke ass can't afford a car, cable tele, a night out with the wife, or a decent place to live (cramped studio apartment in a hellhole of a building with trashy neighbors).

Tipperary animal lover · 17-10-2012 6:51pm

Hahahahah oh for fcuk sake I feel so sorry for them ..... Welcome to the bloody real world

newposter12 · 17-10-2012 7:01pm

A representative of the Troika said last week that the public sector has been immune from the recession and he's right,not one compulsory redundancy and increments where there's a freeze in alot of the private sector.At least this Sergeant has a guaranteed job,guarenteed lump sum when he retires and a guaranteed pension.What about those people who have same out goings on far less money or who have lost their jobs!

Also,his allowances are tax free!

tommyboy2222 · 17-10-2012 7:05pm

UCDVet wrote: »

LoL - the guys makes 65k. Forgive me if I don't shed a tear.

Meanwhile, my broke ass can't afford a car, cable tele, a night out with the wife, or a decent place to live (cramped studio apartment in a hellhole of a building with trashy neighbors).

It's actually € 75k a year he's making.

I have a feeling there's more to the story. That or they are trying to maintain a Celtic Tiger lifestyle.

It can be expensive trying to keep up with the Joneses.

greecy_joe · 17-10-2012 7:07pm

while their are many ways of interpreting this story , one thing is certain , it firmly puts paid to any idea that guards are underpaid in this country

also , it mentions that the couple bought their house seven years ago , this despite the fact that the husband is fifty , who buys their first house at forty three , sounds to me like they may have more than one house to pay for

MrMatisse · 17-10-2012 7:17pm

Does any one else not find it strange that a pretty junior member of our national police force makes nearly $100,000 a year!

He should move to the U.S. ask for that money and see how he goes on what he gets there!!

greecy_joe · 17-10-2012 7:18pm

MrMatisse wrote: »

Does any one else not find it strange that a pretty junior member of our national police force makes nearly $100,000 a year!

He should move to the U.S. ask for that money and see how he goes on what he gets there!!

actually , police in the usa make serious money but compared to most western countries , police are incredibly well paid in ireland

kupus · 17-10-2012 7:25pm

For what its worth my view is that this is a spin doctored story, and a complete fabrication. Its not as if unions or government employees have lied before.
Unions putting a sob story into the main media to favor themselves and their members so they can cry the poor mouth.

Its fairly obvious that the numbers dont add up, thanks to the work guys or girls(see im not a hardcore conservative

) have done here adding it up, so something is amiss.

Thinkingaboutit · 17-10-2012 7:26pm

A lot of people who lost jobs, often end up getting another one that isn't vastly larger than minimum wage. Often they have to work out how to cope with a mortgage, or not. There has be some poor money management or other debts.

Pottler · 17-10-2012 7:27pm

Ah, it's not all bad, at least he can get free coffee.

UCDVet · 17-10-2012 7:33pm

MrMatisse wrote: »

Does any one else not find it strange that a pretty junior member of our national police force makes nearly $100,000 a year!

He should move to the U.S. ask for that money and see how he goes on what he gets there!!

Cops in the US are very well paid.

Garda Sergeant can't afford food

Comments