The tough life of the 'hardened unemployed'


As I mentioned earlier, my example was from NI, not RoI. Although I am sure there are plenty of similarities between both jurisdictions.

And the layabouts I was chatting about are all white Irish.
 
Most of the parents at our kids' school are on benefits.'She added: 'I don't feel bad about being subsidised by people who are working. I'm just working with the system that's there. If the government wants to give me money, I'm happy to take it.

The couple met in a pub 13 years ago. A year later, at the age of 17, Mrs Davey gave birth to Jessica, now 12. She was followed by Jade, ten, Jamie-Anne, eight, Harriet, six, Adele, four, the couple's only son Tie, three, and Mercedes, two.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=502766&in_page_id=2#ixzz0l9aG

The quotes above sum up what I think about this situation.
The system is wrong.
They live in this kind of environment..
Pregnant at 17.
Speaks volumes about lack of education, ignorance and how education/change of mindset must be a priority.
There will always be exceptions to this.
 
What's worse is that SW rates in Ireland are a lot higher than in the UK.
 
I once shared a house with a guy on disability. He said that he had back trouble.

He got free bus, bin tags etc.

I never once hear the guy even mention that he had back trouble.
 
thedaras said:
If the government wants to give me money, I'm happy to take it.
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Whilst this attitude and her obvious spunging drives me mad, I do think she has a point. We're all economic agents (In Economics parlance) where we will generally take the best course of action that we seem fit (within the law). People on high incomes making pension contributions to reduce their tax bill and wealthy indicuduals / profitable companies hiring expensive tax accountants to minimize their tax are equally doing what's in their best interests. It falls to the government to pass & enforce fair legislation regarding tax and social welfare payments.

My own view is that these people are quite sad really. No sense of embarrassment that they are in no way trying to improve their lives and passing lazy values to their children. The big plasma is actually a good investment in their case as I'm sure it gets plenty use
 
RMCF said:
I know many working people watching old style TVs and many have no satellite/cable TV etc.

Yet nearly all of the people I know on benefits have a large plasma TV, and Sky TV as well. Needless to say there is plenty of gaming systems at home too.
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I used to manage rental property and sadly found that this is often true. I think some people have different priorities and often think in the short term only.

A bit unrelated - I'd like to see a charge introduced to people entitled to medical cards. Something like having to pay the first €5 of any visit to the doctor. Anything that is free gets abused.
 
The quote highlighted 2 posts above is a quote taken from a newspaper article ,and not the view of thedaras.

Usually when people are given things for free they do not appreciate it.
I remember a course that was fully booked where anyone on social welfare got on it for free,there was a waiting list,so many of those who booked but didn't have to pay, didn't turn up a lot of the time,or not at all.
Obviously this meant the genuine people missed the chance to do.
 
thedaras said:
Usually when people are given things for free they do not appreciate it.
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I think this is the crux of it all. People don't appreciate and tend to abuse that which they get for free. In my opinion, nothing should be free. Everything should at least carry a nominal charge.
Except drink
We need that to help us forget what a mess the place is in.
 
shnaek said:
I think this is the crux of it all. People don't appreciate and tend to abuse that which they get for free. In my opinion, nothing should be free. Everything should at least carry a nominal charge.
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My instinct would be to agree with you, but I did see hard research on prescription charges showing that any charge of any size acts as a deterrent, and people end up not getting the medication that they should be taking. Apart from the personal costs of this, it can often result in downstream costs for society in terms of more intensive healthcare requirements.
 

Mrs Purple is a GP. She has been called out at night to medical card patients because they have run out of Calpol and she has then been verbally abused because she didn’t have a full bottle to give to them. Nothing like that has ever happened with private (paying) patients.
 
Here's another quality example, admittedly from NI too, but it just goes to show how the Govs continue to get all their priorities wrong.

I have a friend whose little child is now coming to the age of going to pre/nursery school in the North (Sept 2010). Their previous child went to a nursery about 8 yrs ago and got in no bother. He and his wife both work long hours and pay taxes.

When he enquired recently about getting the 2nd child into the same school he was told that he couldn't be guaranteed anything just yet as they had to wait to see if there was any spaces left since the criteria had changed. Apparently now all the single mums and unemployed/disadvantaged parents get 1st places for their children, and then they see what they have left over after those are allocated.

To me this just sums up that once again the hard working people are discriminated against in favour of many lazy good-for-nothings (not all of course but many system abusers will get priority).

I have asked a family member who works in NI social welfare system if this was true and it was confirmed.
 

I understood that when a Doctor is called out at night by either private of medical card holders that a detailed description of what is wrong with the patient had to (is asked for) be given.

Do Mrs Purples medical card patients say,well I need a doctor cos I don't have any calpol! Where does triage come into that!

She may want to have a word with the people who are on the phones.

If on the other hand a parent,(I really don't see what difference being a medical card holder or a private patient has on this,)has rung in with a genuine concern that a child is ill and the doctor arrives and makes the call that the child is ok, but needs calpol for pain and doesn't have enough /any to give to a child at 3am in the morning well I can understand the parent being concerned/upset.

As someone who is a private patient and has had to call out doctors to check out my kids, I have never come across a doctor that didn't have the medication to get me through until I could get some myself and that includes calpol.I dont ever recall the child being given a half bottle or a spoonfull.

Isnt that why they have drivers? Due to the fact that they carry medication.

Parents whose kids are sick are usually quite scared and want the best for their kids regardless of being a medical card or private patient.
 
Patients are triaged by a nurse and the call is passed on to the doctor. Symptoms are exaggerated in order to get the doctor to call out. In her experience (around 1’000 nights on call over 10 years) she has never had such blatant exaggeration from parents who do not have the medical card but it is a regular, if infrequent, occurrence with medical card patients.

thedaras said:
but needs calpol for pain and doesn't have enough /any to give to a child at 3am in the morning well I can understand the parent being concerned/upset.
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Doctors usually carry large numbers sachets rather than multiple bottles of the stuff. In the case outlines the parents were irate because there was no bottle of the stuff given to then (for free), only enough sachets to keep them going ‘till well into the following day. The real problem is that Calpol is not a prescription drug and so they had to pay for it themselves.

I agree, that would be standard practice. In your case did the doctor give you enough medication to last you the following week or just enough to get you through ‘till the shops opened?

thedaras said:
Isnt that why they have drivers? Due to the fact that they carry medication.
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Yes, but they don’t carry enough for the full treatment of every illness they might come across in the course of a nights work, otherwise they’d be travelling abound in a truck.

thedaras said:
Parents whose kids are sick are usually quite scared and want the best for their kids regardless of being a medical card or private patient.
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No, if your baby is teething and you’ve run out of calpol then you get in your car and drive to the nearest 24 hour garage or shop. If you don’t have a car then get a taxi or call a family member. If you don’t have that option then you accept that you screwed up and you deal with having a crying baby for the night. It’s annoying but not frightening and it’s no reason to call out an emergency doctor in the middle of the night at a cost to the tax payer of well over €150 (the doctors fee, plus the drivers wages, plus the nurses wages, plus the call centre facility, plus the insurance etc) because you were stupid and didn’t spend a couple of euro on medicine.
 
Might be an idea to get the people on the phone to advise the "medical card" patients that only one/two sachets will be given by the doctor

This would save the doctor from any hassle?
My point is ,most parents are irrational when it comes to their kids, and not if fairness ,stupid to have run out of medicine.
 
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I have been in a situation that someone was sick in the middle of the night and I rang south doc. I was told that the only reason a doctor would call if it was a suspected heart attack or stroke, otherwise I would have to travel to the doctors office. My point is maybe the parents thought that the child was much sicker than what it was and panicked?
 
doubledeb said:
I have been in a situation that someone was sick in the middle of the night and I rang south doc. I was told that the only reason a doctor would call if it was a suspected heart attack or stroke,
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If this is the case, it is just dumb. For either of these cases, you need an ambulance with skilled paramedics, quickly followed by a hospital, not a home-visit locum GP.
 
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