THE “DOLE” SYSTEM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5430, 29 May 1929, Page 2

THE “DOLE” SYSTEM.

SUPERVISION TOO SLACK. INCOME OF £lO A WEEK. Information collected by the New South Wales . Minister of Mines concerning the working of the “dole” system has convinced him of the necessity for a stricter supervision of unemployment relief (says the “Dominion”). Amazing abuses have been revealed. Two instances are given. Ip, the first a former employee at one of the closed mines was drawing from family endowment, Federation relief, and other kindred sources a total unearned income of £2l a fortnight. In the second, a man came back from a two years’ trip round the world at his own expense, went to the coalfields, and placed himself on the “dole.” Under this loose system of supervision there must be an appalling leakage of misdirected funds. Laxity in official supervision encourages unscrupulous individuals to rob the State and the community. In such a task as the dispensing of unemployment relief it must be a matter of considerable difficulty to test the good faith of the individual. There are always a certain number of workshy persons perfectly willing to “live on the game,” if the means can be found. That is one of the reasons why, in this country, the idea of the “dole,” so persistently advocated by the Labour-Socialist Party, has never found public support, even in times of acute unemployment.