[West Ender]

While waiting to start work in the Inland Revenue, when I left school in 1959, I worked for 2 months as a "casual" in the Ministry of Labour in Accrington, the Labour Exchange. I remember seeing a doctor's certificate for one chap that had a long, convoluted Greek word written on it. We looked it up and found it meant "fear of work".

One thing about drawing "dole" in those days was that they had to "sign on" twice a week. That meant going in person to the office and signing that they had been unable to find work. The 2nd signing day was Friday when they collected their dole in cash. If they didn't attend to sign they got no money so, at least, it got the work-shy out of bed. There were also regular interviews to find placements for them and again, if they didn't attend the interviews or if they turned down a suitable job offer, they had no dole.