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Thursday 24 November 2011
Don't forget to leave your contact details so our experts can call you back with advice. If you're texting, text the word Four first, followed then by your question to 53555.
Lines open today from 3pm to 5.45pm.
emails@fourlive.ie
LoCall: 1850 717 111
Text Four followed by your comment to 53555
With the country in turmoil, we've experts in employment, rights, finance, mortgages and charity answering questions and taking calls throughout the show.
David Kerr, Founder and Managing Director of bonkers.ie, Ireland's leading (and award-winning) Personal Finance Website.
Bonkers.ie helps thousands of people every month compare and switch providers in home utility (gas, electricity, broadband service, phone service) and personal finance (credit cards, savings accounts, current accounts and loans). Using bonkers.ie, Irish consumers take the hassle out of finding and switching to a better deal and leave more time for the important things in life. I was the "Money" segment expert for last year's FourLive run.
Teresa McCourt , Citizens Information
Teresa Mc Court has been the Development Manager with Co Westmeath Citizens Information Service since 1997. The service is part of a national wide network of Citizens Information Services which provide face to face information advice and advocacy on all social rights and entitlements.
In Westmeath, the service runs 2 full time Centres, one in Mullingar and one in Athlone and Outreach centres in Castlepollard and Kilbeggan. Every effort is made to provide a high quality comprehensive and confidential service to the public.
The service is free and confidential.
Robert MacGiolla Phadraig,- Executive Director with Sigmar Recruitment
Robert has 10 years recruitment services experience. Robert was part of the recent MBO team and manages the Technical business unit, Sigmar Training and all internal training and PR. He has delivered high volume Outplacement modules in addition to one to one executive coaching programs. Robert has also facilitated large recruitment drives for both large multinationals and SME's.
Robert is chair of the Employers Job Creation Initiative, presented to Minister Batt O'Keeffe in April 2010. He works with the "Business in the community" and FÁS, advising on back to work initiatives, while personally supporting and coaching jobseekers. Robert is a regular commentator on recruitment and employment in the national press and radio. Robert has led Sigmar to numerous awards, including Top 10 Workplace in Ireland 2007,2008,2009 and to multiple National Recruitment Federation Awards.
Robert holds a BA Arts from UCD and has completed Train the Trainer course with Lewis McKinley & Associates.
For the past few months, Robert MacGiolla Phadraig has been working with Drogheda's citizens to create jobs. For the campaign, Robert has compiled his best tips to support jobseekers back towards employment.
Andrew Robinson - Barrister At Law for New Beginnings
New beginning which is a not for profit organization formed 12 months ago, firstly to provide legal representation to those facing the repossession of their family homes through the courts. Since then they have been advocating on behalf of distressed mortgage holders. Over the past few months they have rolled out Solution and this has been received well by commentators and government.
David Kerr, Finance Expert
A sample of 4 questions David gets asked in his job:
1) I have never made "the big switch" and now I want to. I have gas and electricity at home in my 4 bed semidetached house in Wexford. Who would be cheapest for me?
2) I am currently with Bord Gais for Electricity (since November 2009). Can I still make savings on my Electricity bill? I live in a 2 bed apartment in Clontarf, I do not have gas.
3) I want to save €250 per month. Where is the best place for me to put my savings? I am concerned about security of the bank. Is there still a bank guarantee?
4) I have just had the good fortune to have a windfall of €10,000. Where can I put my money that would earn a high % rate of interest? I am happy to lock up my money for a year.
5) I have credit card debt of €12,000 and savings of €14,500. Should I pay off some of my credit card debt with my savings ?
Relevant stats on Finance:
The Independent: October 9th 2011 - A report by MABS (Money, Advice and Budgeting Service) into the mortgage arrears crisis reveals that four out of five of its clients who are struggling with their mortgage believe it will take up to half a decade before they can return to meeting their monthly payments.
A third of those who have mortgage arrears believe they will never be able to repay their debts.
The type of questions Liam is asked:
- How to budget more effectively each month? Don't go out etc. but still nothing left in their account every month.
- In mortgage arrears, how do we best communicate with our lender?
- I have some money on deposit but not sure if I am getting the best rate, which hare the best accounts out there?
- I have a credit card and I pay the minimum each month but getting no where, what can I do?
- I am looking a buying a property but it seems that no lender is giving out any money, is this true?
Teresa McCourt , Citizens Information
Relevant Stats
- Co. Westmeath citizens information service dealt with over 28,000 queries from members of the public in 2010. Social Welfare accounts for over 45% of the enquiries.
- The main issues people have are Employment, Social Welfare Heath and Housing, but the service also deals with queries on Education, Tax, Immigration and many other topics.
- More than 591,000 families receive child benefit.
- The Department of Social Protection is paying child benefit in respect of 7,814 children living in other EU states.
- The child benefit bill for next year at this stage is expected to be at least €2.1 billion, a tenth of the department's spend.
Robert MacGiolla Phadraig,- Executive Director with Sigmar Recruitment
Relevant stats
There are almost 450,000 people unemployed in Ireland which means one in 7 of us are unemployed.
No. on the Live Register
October 2010 - 429,553
September 2011 - 437,441
October 2011 - 430,432
Males /Females
The number of female claimants increased by 4,883 (+3.3%) to 152,837 over the year, while the number of male claimants decreased by 4,004 (-1.4%) to 277,595.
The highest no of males unemployed were craft workers & related areas.
The highest no of females are from the sales, personal & clerical.
Jobseekers benefit (October 2011) 99,013 (October 2010)
23,703 less
Jobseekers allowance (October 2011) 301,333 (October 2010
)Up by 20,269
New Beginning Info:
New beginning receives around 70 calls from people each day who have legal proceedings against them or who are in mortgage distress.
Currently there are 95,000 mortgages that have difficulties, 40,040 have not had any payment s in over 180 days. There has been a 10% increase in those in arrears or who have had their loans restructured.
What do New Beginnings offer:
New beginning offers free legal representation to those facing the re possession of their family home and advice on what to do if you are in arrears and the code of conduct (see info on the code of contact below)
They also offer a mortgage solution called the New Beginning Soloution. See more details on this below
THE NEW BEGINNING SOLUTION
NB recognizes the huge economic and social challenges faced by the over indebtedness of citizens.
Mortgage debt is the largest constituent part of this problem and relates to the family home, which is a vital social and economic asset, and of critical importance to the common good.
The NB solution can be applied to 80% of current in distress mortgages. There are a group of mortgages to which this solution cannot be applied.
NB SOLUTION IS BASED ON SOME KEY PRINCIPLES
1. There must be a willing lender and a willing borrower.
2. There is a maximum that the borrower can be expected to pay. This is 35% of their net income (income after taxes).
3. In coming to a solution it is reasonable to take into account 3 positions
- The borrower
- The bank
- The country
How does it work:
- The borrower will agree to pay 35% of their Net Disposable Income.
- The payment will escalate for 10 years by between 1-3% annually.
- 1% increase for 10 years brings in an extra 6.7% -7.5% capital
repaid on 20-30 year 4% mortgages. This is multiplied for larger increases.
- If the loan cannot be repaid based on today's income, we will park some of the money on a shelf. No interest is paid on this money while it sits on the shelf.
- We recommend that there is a minimum period of five years before any money is taken off the shelf. This money is repaid in small chunks and with small loan terms, typically 3-5 years.