The Means Test

The Means Test

Unemployment

An audio clip about unemployment and the means test.

EMOHA

EMOHA

You may use this item in accordance with the licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

.mp3

English

You went on the dole for 18 shillings a week and it lasted 6 weeks. And then, if after that, if you couldn't get work, especially the older people, they put them on a means test and that was for another few weeks. And in that time they told you to sell your furniture. And a lady I know, she was, when she was a grandmother, they told her to sell her sideboard and she had to. And I know someone, he was very, very musical and he loved his piano, and he hadn't got work, and they told him to sell his piano, but his son walked in the room and threw this chap out, so he did keep his piano. But that was the way it was in those days.

Now I left school in 1931. I was 18. I signed on at the unemployment exchange, as it was known then, but I did not receive any employment pay. And for three months, I had no job, no dole, and no future.

There was hundreds of us thrown on to the dole just like that, and there was already a terrific amount on the dole and, well, to go through that that time it was a terrifying experience really, because when you used to go and you had to sign on about twice or three times a week. And you, you had to stand in terrific long queues and you could see men in there, really well dressed and well educated, and it was a horrible experience.

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