From top: A review by NUI Galway of methods forcing lone parents to seek work introduced by former Tanaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton
Many lone parents, particularly those who had been working part-time and earning less than €90 per week – the amount a parent could earn without their one-parent payment being affected – say their income has fallen as a result of moving to Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Groups say childcare is too expensive and inadequate to allow many to seek work, while no account is taken of difficulties of parents of disabled children, those in rural areas without transport or those with little education.
Good times.
Joan Burton’s policy may be making lone parents poorer (Kitty Holland, Irish Times)
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Kitty Holland reckons lone parents should get transfers from others? I am shocked. Shocked.
Also that it MAY make them poorer, so its safe to say it MAY make them wealthier then.
The LABOUR Party. Joan is in the LABOUR Party.
Only cos the “Progressive” Democrats no longer exists.
It’d be swell if she fupped off to Renua. Not even joking, making poor people work for welfare fits very well with their insane perspective on how everything works.
Where is the Iona Institute, who openly and vocally oppose state-subsidised childcare because it ‘forces’ women to work (by their logic), in all this? Surely they want to ‘love them both’ and avoid single motherdom remaining, as it often is, impoverishing?
Huh?
Once the unborn ceases to be unborn, the likes of Iona don’t give a fupp about them. They hate single mothers because a decent, married (proper man/woman married, not the other sort!) couple is deprived of the opportunity to raise that child properly, rather than the harlot who can’t be forced to give the child up anymore.
Its an awkward scenario, I know of people offered work but after seeing the hours they would work and pay the would actually take home they turned down the job. I think complete waster wanting the state to fund your life, but when you look at it logically I cant see many people wanting to work for a couple if Euro more(with costs taken into account) than you would get for not working.
“I think complete waster wanting the state to fund your life”
Nobody WANTS to live on €188 a week. The lazy dole scrounger is a boogeyman. It is propaganda designed to distract you from looking *up* to where the *real* shortfall in our national finances comes from. The odd person you will come across who doesn’t want to work almost certainly has low self esteem and/or depression.
First off we all know people who just don’t want to work and are happy picking up €188 to do nothing, lets not pretend we don’t. Listen like I said when you look logically at it why would you work for say €310(random amount) when with childcare, if you need it, and travel cost basically leaving you with little above your payment you get for not working.
“First off we all know people who just don’t want to work and are happy picking up €188 to do nothing”
You don’t know that they’re happy. They almost certainly are not. Have you ever actually lived on €188 a week for more than a couple of weeks?
You don’t know they are not happy. I know people, im not tarring all with the brush, I just know people and thet pick up €188 because they are happy not to work.
But you don’t know they’re happy. They ate almost certainly not happy. Have YOU ever lived on €188 a week for more than a month with little to do?
No I have not, I was well off I lived on €200 after working a 32.5 week. So got up off my hole for €12 more than if I did nothing. And although it im sure your trolling im going to keep answering your crazy posts about mentally unwell dole recipients, Of course their not just lazy good for nothings.
“No I have not,”
So you have literally no idea what you’re talking about here and the whole point of your error strewn, incoherent posts was to sneer at poor people and make yourself feel better at their expense. Grand. Hopefully you forgot about how unhappy amd angry you are in general for a good 5 minutes anyway.
Like I said trolling, look calm down take your medical card bought tablets and go collect your wasters allowance.
I do know a guy like that.
And he’s far from happy. He’s 30 and living with his parents. I don’t know why he is the way he is, but I’m leaning towards a mental health explanation to be honest, rather than just being workshy.
So basically plucking at straws for any reason bar the two simplistic answers…..1 he’s unfortunate to never ever be able to find work or 2 with no fear of being cut off he’s HAPPY to live off the state.
He’s NOT happy to live off the state. He’s almost certainly very unhappy about that. If he’s not looking for work, it’s probably because he doesn’t think he’ll get any.
You really mustn’t know many people.
Lone parents do not live on €188 a week (this post is about lone parents).
There are qualifying payments for children, inevitably a medical card and you are more likely to have access to housing supports.
Ok. Lone parents don’t WANT to live on €300 a week. Better?
Slightly.
But still very boring.
The single greatest cause of poverty in Ireland is lone parenthood. The root causes of this need to be addressed.
No, you don’t become poor because had a child or because your parents split up. That’s old Christian propaganda.
Wrong.
60% of lone parent households suffer deprivation (Barnardos).
23% live in consistent poverty compared with 8% of the general population.
These are facts
Having a child still didn’t make them poor though.
Living in a country that for probably ideological reasons has decided to have zero state childcare provision did that.
“These are facts”
Facts that don’t prove being a lone parent or a child of one causes poverty. That 60% of lone parents suffer deprivation doesn’t mean being a lone parent *caused* the deprivation. Learn how to think critically and stop mindlessly regurgitating false Christian conservative propaganda.
“60% of lone parent households suffer deprivation (Barnardos).”
Also, how are the other 40% doing ok then if lone parenting is the main cause of poverty? Think about that? Of course not.
Your ability to ignore the facts and respond with assumptions and vilification ad hominum are increasingly pathetic.
I quoted the fact, you dimwit. I pointed out that the fact doesn’t prove your statement. Jesus, ig you’re so sensitive, you probably should syay away from the internet.
Your ignorance is breathtaking.
Shoo
Contraception and abortion for all.
Agreed.
The group most likely to be in poverty in Ireland are:
-Living alone
-Of working age but not working
-Renting
-Low education
http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/socialconditions/atriskofpovertyratebydemographiccharacteristicsandyear/
This group does not really have a natural constituency for sympathy and often gets overlooked when it comes to policymaking.
Bring back the Laundries! Sell babies to decent, hetero, married couples the way we used to, so the likes of David Quinn won’t have to go to Asia to buy babies for adoption.
There is a programme called the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) Programme which is specifically targetted at low-income, lone parents. It provides creche facilities for 24,000 children at a cost of between €50 and €95 per week depending on your circumstances. There are about 900 locations nationwide. The latest reference to Exchequer cost I can find is €50m.
Bear in mind the transition to jobseeker’s allowance takes place when your child is seven and you are not obliged to actually SEEK work until your child is 14.
So they can spend €50 to €90 a week from the €188 they get a week from Jobseekers Allowance? God, I wish *I* was an unemployed single parent. Life sounds so easy for them.
Well the purpose of the childcare is to allow them to take up employment…….
“earning less than €90 per week – the amount a parent could earn without their one-parent payment being affected”
So dont live on 188 then simply.
Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that when I was on the scratcher for over 6 months. Just get more money! It’s so simple, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. You’ve cured povety, Anom. Congratulations.
Are you the bloke that mentioned a while back about having an investment property in Dublin City centre and was gonna hike up the rent on daft for the morkeshing types?
Sorry if not
No. No apology necessary.
Steve, you’re thinking of the board’s self-hating posho Mr T/Tish Mahorey.
Moyest at least is consistently leftist.
Sounds like all you needed was a dose of Aspiration™.
Sure I’d probably have only drank it for the alcohol because unemployed people love the booze like. They spend all their dole on boozing and partying and laughing at the suckers who work.
“Activation”
Like flicking a switch on a coffee maker.
Don’tcha just love buzzwords! They’re so buzzwordy!
Dehumanising words really help the dehumanisation process, I find.
with this, and other policies, the gov punish people who aren’t (a) in a family, and (b) in a together, happy family.
There are people who have no inclination to work.Not due to depression or an inability to work,but because they can live on the allowance without working.Wasters you can call them.
They probably have low self esteem and/or depression. Have you ever lived on €188 a week long term?
I’ve no idea how to solve this issue, but I’m guessing it’s a mix between further financial support, education, contraception , proper state funded child support .
But saying that there aren’t people out there happy out to be on the dole isn’t correct. Listen to any phone in show for anecdotal evidence. They aren’t all depressed , have low esteem or scared to work. It’s a choice they have made. And i have no problem supporting them through my taxes coz I know for the vast majority of people on the dole this isn’t the case.
Saying there aren’t people like this is the same as saying all the single ma’s are tracksuit scroungers who aren’t homeless but live with their ma watching Jeremy Kyle, spend all their money on HD brows , nails and tan , penneys and in the January falcon holiday sales.
“But saying that there aren’t people out there happy out to be on the dole isn’t correct.”
It very much is. The human mind isn’t that complicated. People need dignity. They get that from feeling valued. They, in turn, get that by being useful to others and respected by others.
“It’s a choice they have made.”
Choice? Have *you* ever lived on €188 a week? Or met someone who doesn’t understand their feelings? I assume the idea that someone who tries to delude themselves into thinking they’re happier than they are isn’t alien to you.
“Saying there aren’t people like this is the same as saying all the single ma’s are tracksuit scroungers”
No it isn’t. I’m humanising people. Saying single mothers are all scroungers is the exact opposite of what I’m doing. Also, saying they’re scroungers is based on personal perception and stereotypes. What I’m saying is based on how the human mimd works.
Ah I’m only highlighting extreme points of view in this endless debate, neither of which I subscribe to.
Sure I formed my opinion above based on Joe Duffys back catalogue and you formed yours off your PHD in psychology , coz you know how the human mind works. So we’re both probably right!!!
Oh I’m right. You aren’t though.
There are people who do nixers* and live on 188 plus the rest of the benefits.
There are people very happy to do that.
*sell weed
I regularly benefit from those nixers. They’re not happy.
I think people are missing the big picture. The reforms were an effort to get more women of working age into the workplace. As the Irish population gets older, we need more people working to support them. We can bring in migrants, have more children or get more of the existing working-age adults into the workplace, or a combination of all these options. Unfortunately, childcare and childcare supports in this country are awful. Also, in ANY welfare reform anywhere, its impossible to find a perfect balance between fairness and incentivising work. There are always winners and losers here and its not pretty. That doesn’t mean its not worth trying.
But Joe, have you ever asked yourself why it is that these measures are only introduced when there are sod all jobs available? When thousands emigrated to find work? All of these people, and particularly the boul’ Joan, have been professional politicians (though not necessarily “in power”) during the boom times, or the Celtic Tiger , if you will. Those would indeed have been the times to “incentivize” (how I love that phrase) robust back to work schemes, of which I approve, in principle. Why was it never done? The reality is that all of these young persons together aren’t as big a drain on the economy as certain huge earning, but non tax paying persons and entities, and there was no need at the time to stir up class hatred for the sake of votes..
Incentivising
You can either help people by breaking the barriers to work – i.e. actually having a childcare system that doesn’t consume 40% of the average wage.
Or you can make people poorer and poorer until they’re forced to pawn their kid of anyone willing and do a few shifts.
The choice was there and they chose the latter. If the state wanted single parents to stay at home and rear the kids, if that was like official policy, the system would look much as it does now, where you need two salaries to avail of proper childcare.
Close to one in eight people of working age live in households that have nobody in employment in this country: http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/qnhs-fu/qnhshouseholdsandfamilyunitsq22016/
At the same time many companies here have had to hold overseas recruitment fairs to find employees because Irish people won’t take up the positions they have.
Joan Burton should be applauded for trying to move people from welfare to work.
Yep. Don’t say it too loudly, though.