Okay, so you'll only get the GP medical card when you are 70. You will get any prescription costs over €114 a month covered by the State, and retired people use the most prescription medication. I'm not saying all retired people are living in the lap of luxury but they aren't starving either. It's also fair to say that they didn't all work hard all their life, they didn't all contribute to society and they didn't all suffer hardship and deprivation although some did. I'm not a fan of generalisations, good or bad, based on age, gender, colour, ethnicity or anything else.
My mam has just gotten her travel pass
- Thread starter elacsaplau
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By the time I get to 70 there is no gusrantee I will get the GP medical card free , the goalposts have a habit of moving, and if my medical costs are anything like 114 euro per month I hope to be taking flights to Spain again. I am retired with a company pension so will not be in the lap of luxury but ok though.
Glad to hear you have a company pension as well as your State pension. I agree that the goalposts keep moving; populist universal payments are expensive and fundamentally unfair; welfare should be targeted at groups based on their need, not on their propensity to vote.
Very easy for posters to make assumptions
Oh, that's a pity. Not enough PRSI contributions?
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A semi-state ?
And I bet you enjoyed 40 years of negligible chance of being sacked or made redundant as well .
They went from semi state to private . There was always the chance of been sacked but it would have to have been something very serious. There was even talk of them going into examinership which did not happen but It had a big influence on my decision to retire though.
Yeah, as I thought, negligible 'chance', though I suspect many of the 'chancers' should have been.
Used to be a half decent place to work but over the last two decades or so has become what must rank in the top 5 world's worst telcos .
If my assumptions are correct.
Did the pension stay Defined Benefit?
Possible because of repeated sales and a bit of asset stripping.Yeah, as I thought, negligible 'chance', though I suspect many of the 'chancers' should have been.
Used to be a half decent place to work but over the last two decades or so has become what must rank in the top 5 world's worst telcos .
If my assumptions are correct.
In that case I'd be retiring too if I was you!
In fairness I enjoyed working in the company. I had the pleasure of working with great people and met very interesting people also. Having said that their customer service was always poor and has got worse despite us raising concerns , with management, for many years. Selective hearing comes to mind.
From my remove it looks like a really bad example of how to privatise a company. If I remember correctly all of the money raised from the initial flotation was used to plug the massive DB pension deficit.
I was advised at the time by someone working for a foreign telecom company not to buy shares as they were treating their network as a capital asset rather than a current asset (remember Xtra Vision?). I'm glad I took his advice, though with a new baby and a new mortgage I'd no money to invest anyway.
I worked all my life and paid my taxes. Why shouldn't I have it.They are more likely to get lost if they use it
How about giving it to people who need it and not giving it to people who don't need it?
Do pensioners really need it? We have some of the highest pensions in the world and as a group pensioners are the richest people in Ireland with the lowest risk of living in poverty. I'd sooner see it given to those on low wages who have to use public transport to get to work.
How about a reduced rate rather than free?