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Pension levy- whats your opinion
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If I was being totally honest I stopped watching the news and reading the newspapers back in December because I just found all the doom & gloom too much to take.
Last night I watched Questions & Answers for the first time in a while… and it’s only when you stop turning a blind eye to it all that you realise how bad the situation really is. It goes way beyond less take home pay… time to starting seeing the forest and stop looking at the trees methinks.
In hindsight… if someone came to me today and asked me to pay a 6-7% pension levy and in return I was given a guaranteed job and pension I’d take their arm and all.
I reckon its only a matter of time before the Grim Reaper finds me.
If you are in private sector you pay your own pension contributions into a fund which over the years goes up or down depending on the economy. You then invest the amount that has accumulated when you are 65 or later when you can afford to retire and your pension is the interest earned on your fund. It will probably be very little with the drop in pension funds in the past 18 months.
If you are in public sector you get a guaranteed pension which I think is probably half of your retiring salary no matter what you contributed.
Maybe its the guaranteed pension that should be changed. All their contributions should be treated as in the private sector. They just do not appreciate the level of pensions they get because they do not pay the economic rate for them.
in my opinion there is and always has been gross inequity in taxation in Ireland and because of this any decision like the pension levy will be bitterly opposed.
i also believe the government took the easy route with this levy and their scales especially with the lower earners are just incredible.how the authorities continue to ignore white collar crime baffles me and this is breeding a lot of resentment in many sectors of society.
i have to say that i’m sickened by Enda Kenny’s obsession with political points scoring at the moment, people in Ireland need to pull together and this bickering is no great example. Brian Cowen is no great leader, the best of which, lead by example, he seems so disconnected.
I’m left to wonder these days is patriotism dead
My sister has just been made redundant… and is receiving a pathetic redundancy package after over 10 years of service. I’m really shocked… in fact I’m gutted.
I walked into work today and there were people outside some Government buildings campaigning agains the Pension Levy… Jesus… what planet are they on? I’ve a good mind to go out and tell them to kop on.
I take back anything I said to date – any Public Servant that complains about the Levy want to start living in the real world and be glad of all the benefits they have.
Gaylord (if that is your real name) you’re playing right into the hands of the Government and IBEC. The issue is not private vs public employees. Its private and public employees vs the Govemnment, their banker and builder friends who caused the mess in the first place.
Many of the 350,000 public sector employees have partners and familiy members in the public sector who have lost jobs and now have to support them.
For the record, the Civil Servants on strike today have an average salary of about €28,000 gross (not €50,000 as stated elsewhere in this thread). Many of these are work sharers on salaries of about €16,000 gross (these are formerly fulltime workers but now part time because they have families to look after) and yes, for some of these people its their only income as their partners have been laid off and they cannot go back to being full time employees.
A bit of realism for a change. Well put Podge.
I have friends in private and Public. None of them are big earners. They both have a right to defend their living.
People need to stop moaning and looking enviously at what others have and start standing up for their own positions.
This in my view does not mean bickering about one fellow worker getting something that he or she is not.
For many years the Public service was considered a very boring and unattractive place to work..much more exciting to work in modern aggressive company paying huge salaries.
One guy I know was made redundant several years ago from a well paid private sector job and took up a lowly position in the civil service at the bottom of the rung. He is now expected to hand over a chunk of his meagre weekly wage without a murmer.
If I was in his position I’d be doing the exact same thing as he is.
this looks Italy, but 15 years ago.
same discussions, same different feelings.and I don’t know if we must be happy, or not.
There’s a much bigger picture here.
What a lot of people don’t realise is that if the Government don’t start introducing further pay cuts and increased taxes they run the risk of going bankrupt within a year.
The country has spiralled out of control from a cost and competiveness point of view. It has to re-align itself. As far as the rest of the world is concerned nobody is willing to touch Ireland right now… the country is perceived as badly managed and a HUGE risk… if the Government don’t act soon it’s going to fall to pieces.
We can all moan about what has happened in the past 10 years but it isn’t going to fix the problem right here & now. The only thing it might do is raise awareness for the future.
Everyone is caught between a rock and a hard place right now.
Here is the maths.
Forecast Govt Expenditure 2009
Public Service wages €20bn
Transfer Payments (Dole, Pensions, COllege fees etc) €20bn
Investment in Infrastructure €10bn
Other €7bn
TOTAL €57bnForecast Govt Income (from taxes etc)
TOTAL €38bn.DIFFERENCE: €20bn.
The govt has to make up the difference This is the problem. If its not solved, the IMF might give us a loan on the condition that we shut down RTE, Iarnrod Eireann, let go of half the guards and half the HSE, and much more. When that happens, a 6% pension levy will seem like small beer indeed. It might not give us the loan, and we no longer have a public service at all.
You can say what you like about white collar crime: that is 100% valid, but it is completely missing the point. Putting Sean Fitzpatrick in Jail doesn’t close the gap.
How would you solve it?
Agreed Liam – and the problem with loans of this nature is that all they do is stick a big finger in the hole in the damn.
[quoteI walked into work today and there were people outside some Government buildings campaigning agains the Pension Levy… Jesus… what planet are they on? I’ve a good mind to go out and tell them to kop on.
I take back anything I said to date – any Public Servant that complains about the Levy want to start living in the real world and be glad of all the benefits they have.
[/quote]
I think that’s a load of ****** (and that’s not like me to come out with that on this forum) But I think we should be united here instead of telling people to ‘kop on’ If the shoe was on the other foot I would support you and others. I work for my money and have a lot of expenses, the same as all of us, but I object to having it taken from me for ****** nothing. Get up off yer ****** ****and fight for your rights. Whatever happened to Soladarity. Yes I object to this ‘highway robbery and I will protest against it and fcuk the begrudgers. I’m sorry about people who lost jobs etc and I’ve stated that on different occassions on this thread, but I have the right to stand up for myself the same as any worker. Jeez the way things are going you’d nearly be afraid to say you worked in the PS, but this problem is not of the PS’s doing. I do think if there was a united front we might be better.
Apologies in advance for the language.
lousy,
we all work for a money, we all have expenses, its of none of our making.i refer you to the maths in my earlier post and again ask, How would you solve it?
there is no other way, the levy is the first step, but income tax is sure to jump at least 5% in the next year and everyone will be hit by that.
ps”If the shoe was on the other foot, I would support you”……not true, the shoe is on the other foot. Public service strikes would put people out of work if they succeded. That is the choice you make, to save their 6%. However the strikes have no chance of succeeding since the government has absolutely no choice. Unemployment data out today shows 90,000 people lost their jobs between October and December. The Private Sector, via unemployment is paying a MUCH higher price than the public sector, via this 6% levy.
its not a personal thing, its not an issue of how hard you work or don’t work, the govt doesn’t have the money.
Anyway, this my last post on the topic, if people can’t see whats staring them in the face then what can ya do…..
Pat: That’s your opinion and it’s yours to have, as is mine.
If two options were put in front of me (a) a 6% pay cut or (b) redundancy I know which one I would choose.
I’m not going to stand united with people discontent because they have to take 6% pay cuts, I don’t feel I have to. I know that this year about 20% of my take home pay, in the form a performance related bonus, will be gone. So my income has come down, I stay in a job and I’m glad.
I believe there’s a bigger picture that has to be addressed and I wish that it were a case that nobody was being made redundant and that everyone had the option of a 5% pay decrease.
Just be warned that it’s going to get worse. It could be a rise in income tax next. The Government are doing what they HAVE to, not what they want to and thusfar they haven’t done enough of what they have to.
J
It might be worth adding that if I walked down past AIB and their staff were outside protesting a 6% pay cut I’d feel no sympathy for them either. The only difference here would be that the Private Sector would be getting nothing in return for their pay cut other than maybe some added job security.
When my sis called earlier in the week to initially tell me about her 10% pay decrease my initial response was “you’re lucky, it could have been a lot worse” and she was in complete agreeance. Turns out it got a lot worse as the week went on.
It’s not Public vs Private for me. For me it’s the Little Picture v. the Big Picture.
The country is struggling at the very highest level so I can’t understand how people could believe that this isn’t going to trickle all the way down, even to those on low earnings. Nobody is guaranteed to be safe from the impact.
I think, like Liam, I’ll throw in my cards now. I’m out.
Yeah you’re right, it’s a dead horse and I’ve simmered down since lunch time.
I’m finished with it too.
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