Feather beds for wealthy retired

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Sionnac

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You can have a state pension , a medical card , free travel, electricity , phone , a Christmas bonus a Mercedes ,a large mortgageless house, a yacht, half a million in savings and shares all at the same time in the auld sod.
No country for old men? I don't think so!!!
 
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Slight exaggeration Here!
Everyone who works and pays PRSI receives the same pension. Free travel is available to everyone over 66, same for electricity units. Phone payments were abolishes several years ago. Medical cards are available to over 70's with incomes of less than €25,000 (hardly millionaires)
 
And when I was your age I didn't have the things that you have come to take for granted nor did I have any sense of self entitlement, just got on with it.
 
Black Sheep said:
Slight exaggeration Here!
Everyone who works and pays PRSI receives the same pension. Free travel is available to everyone over 66, same for electricity units. Phone payments were abolishes several years ago. Medical cards are available to over 70's with incomes of less than €25,000 (hardly millionaires)
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You might replace "income" with declared income! Should a person with half a mill in the bank get the same pension as someone with nothing in the bank? Or should someone with class A health insurance have a medical card? There is entitlement and there is doing what is right and fair. My point is that availability of the above to those who don't need it at the expense of those who do doesn't seem fair to me.
Grizzly said:
And when I was your age I didn't have the things that you have come to take for granted nor did I have any sense of self entitlement, just got on with it.
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Grizzly said:
And when I was your age I didn't have the things that you have come to take for granted nor did I have any sense of self entitlement, just got on with it.
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Black Sheep said:
Everyone who works and pays PRSI receives the same pension.
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It should be obvious from a cursory review of our current demographics that it is highly improbable that anybody aged under 40, that is currently working and paying PRSI, will receive anything even remotely resembling the State benefits received by today's retirees in real terms.

The sustainability of the State's current pension liabilities is a massive, unaddressed problem. Today's announcements simply exacerbate that problem.

Personally, I find that very depressing.
 
Black Sheep said:
Medical cards are available to over 70's with incomes of less than €25,000 (hardly millionaires)
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The weekly income limits used to be :

700 single / 1400 married

Then cut to 600 / 1200

Now 500 / 900.

Still more generous than <65.
 
My parents pay under 10% direct taxes on 49-50k income.

In return they get:

two med cards
two travel passes
free TV licence
subsidised elec


GREAT COUNTRY.
 
These rich parents can now leave us poor kids more money to inherit tax free so we can invest for our own pensions so we be ok.
 
I have feather pillows so I thought this was actually about real mattresses but I couldn't figure out a feather one !

People who work hard and pay off their mortgage are surely entitled to live in a mortgageless house.

People who pay PRSI all their lives are surely entitled to a state pension.

The comments about Mercedes and Yachts smacks of begrudgery.
 
Exactly I be more concerned about people who never work get rent allowance and are just out for a free ride. Things change quickly not long ago I remember reading about older people having no money to put heating on .

Sometimes your ahead sometimes your behind life's not fair but it's close enough in Ireland that everyone gets a little .
 
Sionnac said:
You can have a state pension , a medical card , free travel, electricity , phone , a Christmas bonus a Mercedes ,a large mortgageless house, a yacht, half a million in savings and shares all at the same time in the auld sod.
No country for old men? I don't think so!!!
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Hi Sionnac,

Not everyone works in the Public Sector you know :p
 
If you drive down to the UCD campus at Belfield they have over 7 huge car parks, all full by 10 a.m. I wonder where the students got all this money to pay for their cars let alone their fees? In my day I got the bus and that was only when there was no bus strike. Otherwise I walked.
When I needed to make a phone call I had to make my way to the local phone box in all types of weather to make a call. Nowadays there is a lot of whinging and whining when the lastest phone isn't bought.
I never heard the words Cappuccino, Sky Sports, Pasta, Designer labels, it was more about instant coffee, press button TVs', Fish and chips and Guineys.
When I purchased my first house it had practically no furniture for 3 years. I wasn't looking for an instantly furnished house. I paid pretty high rates of insurance on everything due to no choice of businesses to choose insurance from. There just wasn't any choice out there, unlike today.
I don't know what age you are Sionnac but I would guess that you grew up on GameBoys, Wii, Duvet covers, Pc's, Lifestyle Sports, Disney World, BMX bikes etc
At every point in our lives we all live in the feather beds whether we realise it or not. I am not 66 yet but I have paid my way to get to where I am. Don't begrudge me.
 
Firefly said:
Hi Sionnac,

Not everyone works in the Public Sector you know :p
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Thankfully , because many private sector pensioners like me ( if I live long enough ! ) will receive the state pension in addition to my occupational pension :p

Mind you I've had good look in the garage & unless the merc is hiding in a shady corner then I must have misplaced it & as for the yacht I must really check the marina in Dunmore East as I have no conscious memory of buying same - could be a memory/symptom of age thing though !
 
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I'm relatively young, at 34. I cried when I got my first bike for a Christmas present, at 16 ! Buy a young person a bike as a present for Christmas these days and it will barely raise a 'meh!' I'm working hard to provide for my pension, when I finally get to that age. I have no sense of entitlement, I will work and pay my taxes, so I don't see any reason why I shouldn't get maybe a few small perks when I stop working after 50 years.

Remember that a lot of these pensioners have paid large amounts of tax to our economy and probably provided employment which meant even more taxes paid to the economy. They have a lot of perks, yes, but they put in the graft to get those perks, so why begrudge them? More power to them and fair play to anyone who does well for themselves. I don't begrudge these people, I admire their willingness to put themselves through hardship to eventually reap the rewards. You should applaud human endeavour, not make snide remarks or begrudge it.
 
Sophrosyne said:
What is the respective age of your parents?
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FTP automatic at age 66.

At 70 mother qualified automatically for HBP, so subsidised elec 35pm = 420 pa, and free TV licence, even though father worked at the time, earning 72k.


Now, father retired, receives pension, but also works a bit.
 
Grizzly said:
When I needed to make a phone call I had to make my way to the local phone box in all types of weather to make a call. Nowadays there is a lot of whinging and whining when the lastest phone isn't bought.
.
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And do you remember the queue outside the phone box. I bought a suitcase in Guineys lately. I ate my first Pizza in Port Authority with a knife and fork.
 
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