DOLE FRAUDS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1933, Page 7

DOLE FRAUDS

MAN WITH OVER £ISOO SYDNEY, September 15. There has always been a belief that some Sydney families on the dole are not qualified by poverty, says a correspondent. Exposures in every large town in New South Wales, and also, of course, in Sydney, have proved the opinion to be well justified. Some strange stories are in possession of the police and of the Chief Secretary’s | Department. j The fact established by the united 1 records is that the State has been I robbed of hundreds of thousands of | pounds. It is this unscrupulousness : that has led to the severe questioning 1 : that precedes the granting of relief. Questioning is usually followed by pol ice enquiries when there is any reason i whatever for doubting the bona fides of the applicants. Suspicion is .natur- • ally created by the frauds that have i been uncovered, and all this is to the disadvantage of honest indigents.

The case of a Parramatta man who received the dole for a year and eventually disclosed his true financial position by reporting to the police that lie had been robbed cf £228, which he ‘‘happened to have in the house,’ is not a solitary instance of the comparatively well-to-do drawing sustenance from the Government. Most of the others are too wary to disclose their actual position. This man had £4OO at current account in another suburb and £940 at fixed deposit. Years hence someone may write the history of . “the depression of the early thirties.” Stories of frauds on relief funds may then be fully exploited.