ABUSE OF RELIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20981, 18 September 1931, Page 10

ABUSE OF RELIEF.

NEED OF RIGID CHECK. OVERLAPPING INEVITABLE. WORK OF HOSPITAL BOARD. WIDER INVESTIGATION URGED. No one disputes the fact that the present economic stress is placing a very severe strain upon the finances of the relief department of the Auckland Hospital Board, but inquiry in a number of directions indicates that the public is by no means satisfied that there is not a great deal of preventable leakage in its relief service, and a considerable amount of overlapping. Representatives of the board have asked for a share of the wages tax, but- have been told that assistance from that quarter will not be available, and it would appear that there is a possibility of an additional levy upon the local authorities being sanctioned. The overburdened ratepayers who may be compelled to pay this additional levy will not fail to notice that the problem of raising more funds is the only question that lias exercised the mind of the board. No attention whatever has been given to the question of curtailing expenditure. Nothing has been said to indicate the slightest suspicion in the mind of the board that the outpouring of relief may have been unnecessarily heavy. Question of Imposition. But there is every reason for believing that there is in operation a wholesale raid upon the board by people, with the pauper spirit, who are getting far more help from one quarter or another than they need or deserve. Before the local authorities will consent to the payment of an additional levy they will have to be assured that the board's relief system is not being abused, and so far the board has done nothing to prove that it is nob being abused.

Anyone with cvei.i a slight knowledge of the system of relief knows that, with the swelling volume of applications, the staff has little opportunity for the essential work of checking the claims by outdoor investigation, and the people who have the pauper spirit or arc actuated by the communistic propaganda are quick to realise that the greater the rush of applications the less is tho chance of fraud being detected. The number of people who arc willing to live upon official or private charity is growing all the time, and the question has been discussed by business men whether a board that is elected on adult suffrage is the right authority to control official relief. Dole in its Worst Form. The Hospital Board would, of course, be glad to hand over unemployment relief to the Unemployment Board, but the Unemployment Board has been forbidden by the Prime Minister to make grants without work,- for this would be the beginning of the dole which has had direful consequences in Great Britain. But many close observers believe that much of tho Hospital Board relief is simply the dole in its worst form. Suggestions have been made that local authorities should control the distribution of this form of relief in their own districts, and one or two suburban relief committees without responsibility to the ratepayers have asked the Hospital Board to allow them to distribute assistance in their own districts.

"Any of these schemes would perpetuate the present weaknesses," said a business man. "To be quite candid, the greatest present weakness lies in the fact that the members of the board are elected by adult suffrage, and there are the inevitable consequences. There is unfortunately a competitive spirit among the social workers of the city. Apparently this is unavoidable, and it would be expecting too much of human nature, as we find it, to ask that unconscious personal bias should be eliminated from the official organisation. "If local authorities had charge of disbursing relief in their own districts the same thing would occur, and for private organisations to become the authority would be going from bad to worse. What the solution is I cannot say, but the fact remains that we seein to be drifting rapidly and getting not only into a parlous state financially, but also creating a pauper class as fast as we can." Overlapping Not Prevented. A man in close touch with social work declared that although the social organisations have a central office, the purpose of which is to prevent overlapping, this is not by any means being checked. Whatever effect is felt among the private bodies of the group, the Hospital Board is rarely consulted by the central office. There is not the slightest doubt that regular recipients of hospital aid also "work" private sources. it was mentioned that social workers often produce lists of people in their own districts to the Hospital Board with a request for help for them all, and that usually most of the people are already on the board's books. This indicates how easily some social workers can be misled and how easy it is for overlapping to take place. "Perhaps the most urgent need," said another man, "is the strengthening of the Hospital Board relief staff to enable a proper check to be made. At the present time the staff can hardly cope with the press of applicants, much less investigate the truth of their statements by house to house visiting and inquiry. It would be impossible to check every caso, but every one over which there may be any suspicion could be watched. The result, I am convinced, would surprise the city."

PREVENTING DUPLICATION. CLOSER CO-OPERATION URGED. The need of closer co-operation between the organisations engaged in relieving distress in Auckland, with a view to preventing the over-lapping of assistance, was urged by Mr. 11. Horton at a meeting of the Auckland Provincial Patriotic and War Relief Association yesterday. Mr. Horton said it was common report that: there was over-lapping throughout tlio city in affording relief, and asked what steps were being taken by the association to avoid this. The secretary reported that in most of the cases dealt with inquiry was made from the Hospital Board regarding any assistance which was being given, and care was taken to prevent duplicating relief. Mr. Horton said it was a pity the Hospital Board did not supply the other social workers in the city with a list of the cases under its notice. It was constantly being reported that the board was giving relief in a manner which might almost be described as promiscuous. in some cases it was reported that men were driven into tho city in motor-cars and had tlion gone into the queues to receive relief. A much closer degree of co-operation was necessary if these anomalies were to be stopped. The matter was referred to the Claims Board.