Why unemployed people abuse the system, and have no excuse for doing so

A BUSINESSMAN told yesterday how he was "gobsmacked" when he offered a permanent job to two workers who had been unemployed for two years -- but both turned it down because they get more in handouts from the State.

David Lawlor, of Watermark Technology in Citywest, Dublin, and who owns the distribution rights to Gaggia commercial coffee machines in Ireland and the UK, was offering a job in maintenance for an annual wage of €28,000.

A person on the national minimum wage of €7.65 an hour would earn €15,912.

First,the businessman offered the position to a Romanian national who has been living here for a number of years. But he quit after just one day.

"He's married, with kids, and is renting," said Mr Lawlor, adding that the man qualifies for multiple types of social welfare.

"He'd been working for a rival but had been let go two years ago. He started on the Tuesday and on the Wednesday he said he felt he was entitled to more money.

"He said he'd get more money on the dole."

Mr Lawlor had pointed out to the man that he could also earn overtime, at one-and-a-half times the rate, as well as have the use of a company van for incidental personal use.

"A lot of these guys are handy, so they do nixers; they have that on top of their dole."

The following week Mr Lawlor offered the job to a Filipino national, who, he said, had the skills required and had done the "best ever interview". He had been living here for several years, had four children and drove an "06 or 07 car".

During the interview Mr Lawlor -- who employs 10 people -- discovered the man had been involved in an industrial dispute with his previous company and had been unable to find another job.

"He was in a situation where no one would give him a job. But I figured that I would be able to manage the situation because I work very closely with my employees.

"But he went home and the next day he called and told me his wife said they would get more money on the dole."

Mr Lawlor said he was frustrated that, despite receiving almost 300 CVs and offering the job twice, he still could not find someone.

Secure

"It's a good job, it's secure, and it's well over the minimum wage. Yet we can't fill it.

"We've got people here who don't want to work, they don't want to be worse off (than on the dole)."

He said the new Government must tackle the issue for the sake of the economy.

"There are politicians here but they're not living in the real world where there are real problems. And until they fix those problems, we're going to go nowhere.

''If anybody out there is listening, I want them to know this is a real issue."

Figures supplied by the Revenue show that a single person earning €28,000 would net €23,565.36 with basic tax credits. This would rise to €23,924.88 for a medical card holder as they would pay 4pc Universal Social Charge (USC).

A married person on the same salary would have additional credits and would take home €25,215.36, rising to €25,574.88 if they hold a medical card and pay the reduced USC of 4pc.

The USC for non-medical card holders is 7pc for all earnings over €16,016.

Troll thread

Theres a difference between not being bothered to work and barely making ends meet then getting offered less money to work full time

And no you have never sponged off the state, you did from mummy and daddy.

Oh btw do you get student loans?

Simple solution: stick a cap on how much social welfare a family can claim, unless they're on disability benefit. £5k + £2k per child. That means you don't have to worry about who can and can't claim what benefits, you just cut them off when they hit the maximum.

And what.. exactly.. is this going to solve with people who are genuinely looking for jobs but simply cannot find one? We aren't in some amazing prosperous age here kiddo, their aren't enough jobs. Maybe you should read up a bit first before making these claims.

Oh and p.s. .. again if you would have had up more .. you would know that not all people who claim disability benefits should be getting them. Exactly the same as the rest.. always people 'cheating'the system.

Now tell me.. why aren't you going to cut disability benefits? It's exactly the same as the rest, people use it to not get a job (sometimes, obviously) when they are able to ? Are you just going to not cut it because the term 'disability benefit' scares you in to not wanting to harm or insult anyone disabled? How is that any different than the unemployed who you are harming with this?

Serious thread, Governments should really start to get a grip on what/who they give their money to so indubitably. And no I don't claim any student loans, my 'mummy and daddy' both earn over £90k and I would be disgusted if they had ever claimed any sort of benefits in their life.

There are new jobs being advertised every day, and not the ones where it actually takes a person with a degree or someone with experience to undertake it. Even though most jobseekers barely have any GCSE's, it still shouldn't stop them from getting a job, they're just lazy.

People with disabilities genuinely may have a reason to not work, why should I want to cut them? If they can't work, they can't. Lowering the limit of all benefits would be a good idea and actually start motivating people to get a job even the retards.

So you do sponge off your parents then so how is that different than someone who gets money from elsewhere.

Did you parents never get any child benefit? thats strange.

and there is where any doubt of this not being a troll thread disapear.

So in a town with thousands unemployed and 3 new jobs say being advertised a week (and yet more people are fired than that a week in the town) then since theres 3 jobs then that means people are lazy?

So the people I know who have 2:1 or 1sts at uni who either are unemployed or have minimum wage jobs are lazy?

I seriously doubt you come from a wealthy family since the term retard is used by teenagers who are used to crappy American tv.

There are new jobs being advertised every day, and not the ones where it actually takes a person with a degree or someone with experience to undertake it. Even though most jobseekers barely have any GCSE's, it still shouldn't stop them from getting a job, they're just lazy.

People with disabilities genuinely may have a reason to not work, why should I want to cut them? If they can't work, they can't. Lowering the limit of all benefits would be a good idea and actually start motivating people to get a job even the retards.

It's not only the unemployed that apparently "abuse" the system - my friend is in a similar situation to yours her parents are millionaires (each of her siblings has a separate house under their name) but her dad get's his accountant to change a few things around so she is still eligible for the bursary and grants the uni gives students, and he also claims benefits, how's that fair?!

Many people want to work, they just cannot find work.

Her dad is just clever, people can trick the system only if you're smart but being on the dole and cheating money out of the government is absurd.