ABUSES OF THE DOLE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11387, 12 December 1930, Page 3

ABUSES OF THE DOLE

EVIDENCE IN ENGLAND

BREEDING OF PARASITES.

A AVIDESPREAD EVIL.

Gross abuses perpetrated underthe British dole system are dealt with ill the London “Morning Post,” Amohg other tilings tho newspaper asserted that a man earning over £4 a week could get tho dole. Promptly there' w'el'e lßtteis stating that this mall could lie multiplied hundreds of tiiffes ill one pliaSe tlf ihdilsti*y< “In one newspaper ' transport service,” wrote a correspondent, “there were dozens of men who drove_ vans .on Saturday afternoons and nights and on Sunday mornings, whose object during tho rest of the week, except for one night, when they worked as relief drivers, was to go racing. On theSd days , they did not sign their insurance books. .It often .happened that when a rush occurred on these days the contractor could not find a driver ‘from the house,’. The same correspondent asserted that he knew of full-time night workers in London markets wlio earned nearly twice £4. but drew the dole. There were puckers who worked 24 hours at week-ends and relied on the dole for the rest of tiieli* “earnings.”

A JOB NOT.WANTED

A Gravesend reader wrote: “Pacing the platform at Gravesend. I overheard this: 'l’m going to Chatham to draw my dole. I have bad the offer of a job, but while I can get the dole, dpli’t see wily 1 should bother. I’m not hard up for . a pound; I’ve £SO in the bank.” A lieutenant-colonel stated that persons drawing pensions up to £6 a week, could also secure the dole.

A Cardiff correspondent said it was doubtful if there was any branch of industry where the regulations governing the payment of the uoie were more systematically exploiteii than that of coal-trimming in South Wales. Although working considerably less than 42J hours -a week tlie dock trimmers, whose wages came from a pool, drew £4 Ids 7d a week for the first 1G weeks pf the year and £4 6s 6d a week for the next 215. Nevertheless, a great proportion of them had been able to comply with the statutory regulations governing the payment of unemployed benefit. In one week 752, or 48.5 per cent., had received the dole in addition to tlieir wages from the pool. On the strength of their being unemployed three days a week they had qualified lor 15s a week and more.

THE HOPFIELD WORKERS

Another correspondent stated that every, year wives with children went to the hoplields. The fathers remained at home drawing the dole, not only for themselves, but also for their wife and children .* Year after year this abuse had been allowed to, go on. ■ At a tinplate works in South Wales three men drawing respectively in wages, £4 2s sd, £.3 IDs Sd and £2 18s lOd. had also secured tlie dole.

A Southampton man mentioned that it was the custom for liners to dock for four to ten days, the crews being automatically paid off and reengaged the da}- before sailing. Numbers of tlie men made it a practice to draw the dole during these days. A Newport reader mentioned that boys of IS could draw more* under the dole system than usually by working. Even if dismissed lor dishonesty they at once become eligible for the dole.

FICTION OF PART-TIAIE LABOK

At ’ Islington and otliei- areas of London, wrote another correspondent, thousands of married women were engaged in part-time work, such as stitching periodicals in printing works. Seeing that they average only two or three days a week they were able to receive tlie dole. Some married women had asked for employment on three days only so that tliev could draw from the fund. A flagrant case was that of a woman whose husband and six sons were all working, but who nevertheless, qualified for the dole by the fiction of part-time employment. Women who had married and did not want or intend to work had applied for their old jobs, knowing that they would be refused. They, however, were able to g,et .the dole. A reader at Bridgen wrote: “1 witnessed an instance of how the thing is done on August 12, which was a Tuesday; A lorry of miners were going direct to the Labor Exchange at 3 p.m., upon ascent from the pit to sign on for Monday, August 11, which had been a ‘stop-day.’ One workman was about to leave- tlie lorry, when the lodge secretary said: ‘Where are you going Y Aren’t Von going to sigh?’ ‘No,’ replied the man, ‘I was on holiday last week.’ ‘Come on,’ said the secretary. ‘I will see to that.” The man went to the exchange, signed on, and has been paid for the week he was on holiday. 'This is the rule, not the exception, in, the mining areas.* The lodve officials of the South Wales Miners’ Federation are behind the scenes at tho Labor Exchanges.”