Northern Ireland In Poverty?

jammin_2

In ROI, if you're married and your spouse doesn't work, you can earn upto approximately €24000 per year without paying a cent of tax, thanks to Married Persons' Tax Credit (unavailable in the UK to those under 70 years of age). If you rent your home and pay approx €750 per month or more, and pay to travel to work (either public transport or your own car), you'd also more than likely qualify for a Medical Card, which would entitle you to much more than you'd get on the NHS (dental, optical, prescriptions etc.). No council tax, no water rates. Refuge collection is usually included if you rent an apartment.

Depends on everyone's personal circumstances I guess, but if you're similar to above, living in ROI would a better standard of living (depending on opinion), than living in the UK.

Sorry I haven't included specific references for the above folks, but a step in the right direction would be www.revenue.ie, www.welfare.ie, www.citizensinformation.ie..

dj9928

There is an interesting article in todays Sunday Life about this very subject

Milko

wannabedebtfree wrote: »

Isn't there some figures somewhere that say something ridiculous like 95% of the Uk's wealth is owned by 5% of the population?? I don't know where I heard it but its stuck in my head from somewhere!!

From memory, this figure relates to Global economy.

sco0ter

Spam post above reported

talksalot81

I am not surprised by reports like this and I imagine things are only getting worse. With current housing levels and the belief that it will continue - people are getting into enormous debts hoping for a sunny day to come. Having lived in NI for a while, people really should know that the sun shines rather infrequently.

BabyDiesel

Hi all,

I just wanted to say about people doing "the double", and others saying they live on their own yet they're living with their partner and renting their own property out... Sometimes i wonder if its worth going ligit! Here's my story...

When i was 19 i was diagnosed with several 'problems', thankfully im nearly recoverd, anyway, because of these i was unable to work and was awarded DLA, Incapacity Benefit and Income Support, i also got a flat which they paid for. (Please note, i worked from i was 15 in chippy's and bars whilst still studying full time for my gcse's and an nvq; then going on to full time employment in administration work so plz don't think i was a scrounger!) Anyway, a yr or so later i met my now husband, and i started to get better tho not well enough to go back to work. We settled down, saved for a deposit on a house and moved in. Around this time they stopped my income support and then because they stopped that they said i was no longer entitled to Incapacity, yet they still agreed that i wasn't well enough to go back to work?? Then six months later when the DLA was up for renewal they stopped that - I was engaged, settle, had a child - i didn't 'need' it?! So i was lwft with nothing apart from my husbands wage and £60 month for child benefit. I then started looking for work but because i was only able to do part time work, no-one seemed to want me! I was signed up with 3 agencies and constantly looking but i wasn't even entitled to Job seekers? They said my husbands wage was enough, i showed them the bills to prove it wasn't - doesn't matter they say. And as for child care - i had to pay the first £70 for it, but yet if im only doing part time work then i would be left with about £20/£30 a wk??? So now im living on £40 wk tax credits (which would have been taken off me if i had have went back to work) so i was actually worse of for going back to work?!? How can that be!?!?
Then i think of other people and what they get away with - do they not realise that its because of this that the bru and government are so hard?

I don't really know what my point is, apart from, if i hadn't let on that i was moving in with my partner, id still have a flat (which plenty of peole would have gladly rented it from me because there's such a long waiting list on the housing executive - again i blame the people renting theirs out when they shudnt be) and all my income instead we wanted to do it properly and look were its got us!!!

So yes, some of northern ireland is in poverty yet some of them are high flyers but not because they work hard - because they work the system!!! :mad:

Colin_Kee

"" So yes, some of northern ireland is in poverty yet some of them are high flyers but not because they work hard - because they work the system!!! :mad: "" Well Said

I agree. SOME (Stressing the SOME) people are in poverty but I don't believe it's even half the people that are reported. As far as I'm concerned, If you can afford Ciggarettes & Sky TV, you aint in Poverty.. these are not Necessities, they're luxuries. as are holidays (which I believe is one of the measures of Poverty if you can't go on Holiday once a year)

I know someone who works in the Civil Service. I know this example is probably an extreme example of working the system but there are two people she is dealing with. Both are on Income support & Incapacity Benifit (top level of Incapacity Benifit). They apparently live in seperate houses (next door to eachother.. both social houses!!) so both get all of the benifits associated with that.. ie. rent paid etc.. they then claim to be looking after eachother so both are cliaming carer's allowance (So two people who are technically Incapable of working can look after eachother??) My friend recons they're pulling in the guts of over £2500/month between them.. People like this are a disgrace.. they should be thouroughly investigated but thing is they're so good at working the system..

Poverty is certainly becoing a problem with the housing "Problem" and it needs to be sorted ASAP.

talksalot81

Funny you note ciggarettes and sky - this sort of thing has become a new necessity. Just look at the people who were flooded with no insurance, yet they could afford their ciggys/sky/plasma TV and still are often getting hand outs. At the same time I do not even have a telephone because I need every last penny of my hard earned money to keep up with the NI market.

ollywood68

Here's a NI site that will tell you about depriviation or proverty. its a bit technicial as it looks at poverty in terms of a number of things such as income, crime, employment, education etc. But what it does do is if you put your postcode in it will give you all the details and tell you where the area you live ranks in terms of depriviation in the whole of NI

http://www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk/mapxtreme_deprivation2005/default.asp

Its an official government site.

leftieM

This is a difficult subject. There is widespread benefit fraud and there are a lot of people who may appear to fall below the poverty line but who don't in reality. There are certainly a lot of people who lie to get benefits and council housing. However there must be those out there who genuinely struggle - a woman who's marriage has broken up and who finds herself as a single parent dependent on state benefits. An elderly couple living on the state pension. A single person who may be unemployable because of mental problems and has to manage on income support long term.
I think that it is an issue in society that we have this benefits culture. However I'd rather have a benefits system and accept the abuse than have no system at all. We talk of poverty but I think that does an injustice to anyone genuinely in poverty. Poverty is what you see in Africa and Asia. It's not what we see here. People struggle sometimes to keep up but no-one goes without the basic necessities (unless they have an addiction to alcohol or drugs.)