ABUSES OF THE DOLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20742, 9 December 1930, Page 13

ABUSES OF THE DOLE.

EVIDENCE IN ENGLAND.

BREEDING OF PARASITES.

A WIDESPREAD EVIL. Gross abuses perpetrated under the British dole system were referred to by Mr. R. McVeagh in an interview in the Herald on Saturday, and recently the same subject was dealt with in the Morning Post. Among other things the newspaper asserted that a. man earning over £4 a week could get the dole. Promptly there were letters stating that this man could be multiplied hundreds of times in one phase of industry. "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 the rest of the week,- except for one night, when they worked as relief drivers, was to go racing. On these 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 big London markets who earned nearly twice £4, but drew the dole. There were packers who worked 24 hours at week-ends and relied on the dole for the rest of their "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 had the offer of a job, but while I can get the dole, don't see why I 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 dole were more systematically exploited than that of coaltrimming in South Wales. Although working considerably less than 424 hours a week the dock trimmers, whose wages came from a pool, drew £4 14s 7d a week for the first 16 weeks of the year and £4 6s 6d a week for the next 25. 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 their wages from the pool. On the strength of being unemployed three days a week they had qualified for 15s a week and more. The H6pfield Workers. Another correspondent stated that every year wives with children went to the hopfields. 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 19s 8d and £2 18s lOd, had also secured the 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 re-engaged the day before sailing. Numbers of the men made it a practice to draw the dole during these days. A Newport reader mentioned that boys of 18 could draw more under the dole system than usually by working. Even if dismissed for dishonesty they at once become eligible for the dole. ' Fiction ol Part-time Labour. At Islington and other 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 the dole. Some married women had asked for employment on three days only so that they 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 odd jobs, knowing that they would be refused. They, however, were able to get the dole. A reader at Bridgen wrote: "I witnessed an instance of how the thing is done on August 12, which was a Tuesday. A lorry of miners was going direct to the Labour Exchange at 3 p.m., upon ascent from the pit to sign on for Monday, August 11, which had been a 'stopday.' One workman was about to leave the lorry, when the lodge secretary said: 'Where are you going? Aren't you going to sign ?' 'No,' replied the man, 'I was on holiday last week.' 'Come on,' said the secretary, 'I will see to that.' The man we it 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 lodge officials of the South Wales Miners' Federation are behind the scenes at the Labour Exchanges."