Dolebusters

“Dolebusters” is an observational documentary that watches the people who watch the unemployed. After two years of negotiation, the British Government’s Department of Employment allowed, for the first time, a television crew to film one of their teams of investigators. These so-called “snoopers” secretly observe and then confront unemployed people that they think are claiming state benefit while working at the same time. Dole fraud is a controversial subject. Mrs. Thatcher’s government has made it a priority. The Secretary of State for Employment, Norman Fowler, denounces the “fiddlers and scroungers”. But critics argue that the money saved contrasts poorly to the millions of pounds that could be saved by more investigation of tax fiddling. They also argue that the methods used to catch the fraudsters intimidate many legitimate unemployed claimants. Only one in five claimants investigated signs off the unemployment register. Only one in a hundred is prosecuted.