DOLE IMPOSTERS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 355, 12 September 1933, Page 6

DOLE IMPOSTERS

Vigorous Campaign

A vigorous campaign against dole imposters, with a view to making an example of offenders that will be a deterrent to others, is being carried on in New South Wales, and many prosecutions have been launched. It was stated recently in the course of the heai'ing of a Police Court case, In which a dole recipient was subsequently convicted of drunkenness, that numerous cases had come before the Courts, in which the police had discovered that persons charged with drunkenness or vagrancy were on the dole. It is the practice to refuse food relief to any person found drunk, for the view is taken that if a man is able to obtain sufficient money with which to become intoxicated, he is not entitled to relief. Officials deny, however, that the cases of this nature are numerous. They say that they are more concerned with the man who, hiding the fact that he has means, collects food relief. Of course, in this category comes the drunkard, who surreptitiously earns money by doing some odd job or other, and spends his earnings on liquor.

Other imposters are those with children earning uioney, a proportion of which is paid into the household exchequer. Cases have been discovered in which the dole recipient received rations not only for himself, but for his wife and family, and investigation has disclosed that the wife, as well as some of the children, were in receipt of wages. It is to deal with cases of this nature that a system of house-to-house inspection has been carried out. In addition, surprise visits are paid to depots, where relief orders are issued and the activities of recipients are checked. In this way, it is claimed, many cases of imposition have boon discovered. An official expresses the view that many of the sentences imposed by magistrates are too light to act as a deterrent to those who seek, by false pretences, to advantage themselves at the expense of the community.