UNEMPLOYMENT FUND ABUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23223, 22 June 1937, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT FUND ABUSES

Instances of the abuse of unemploy-

ment relief benefits by a certain class in the community appear to be increasing—at any rate in some parts of the Dominion. Last week in Auckland seven men were fined for making false statements whereby they received benefits from the unemployment fund to which they were not entitled. The fines were substantial, certainly, but in no case exceeding the amount of the benefit fraudulently obtained, and it is not an unfair suggestion that offenders of this stamp should be charged before the court in terms which would permit of their being punished by imprisonment. In such cases of deliberate and premeditated fraud the community, which provides the funds for the assistance of persons without employment, should be protected in the most effective manner against imposition. Another type of case which, though it involves no form of legal deception, constitutes an abuse of unemployment relief is illustrated in an Auckland telegram in this issue. In this instance a gaming house raid brought about the appearance in court of' fifty-five men, and the magistrate was moved to comment upon the number of persons charged in such circumstances who are in receipt of sustenance payments. There is a condemnation in this fact not only of the men concerned, but of the system of unemployment relief. That money provided by direct taxation should be thrown away on gambling amounts to a social abuse in itself. The cost to the people of New Zealand of supporting the unemployed has approached four and a-half millions per annum. The taxpayers are entitled to expect that the country will receive reasonable value for the expenditure of this large sum. They certainly do not expect to find that part of it is being distributed to enable idle persons to spend their time in gaming houses. Whether the Auckland magistrate’s suggestion that sustenance payments should be made in non-negotiable tokens, is practicable may be questioned. The sections of the unemployed who are disposed to prey on the community would probably have sufficient ingenuity to circumvent such a restriction. But provision could, and certainly should, be made to ensure that any form of abuse of unemployment allowances is dealt with in a more drastic fashion than it commonly is at the present lime.