Doing the Right Thing: How Social Security Claimants View Compliance

Since 1986, the Australian Department of Social Security has increasingly stressed client compliance. Attitudes toward several compliance requirements were assessed through interviews with 196 clients. While most were satisfied with social security and found staff to be helpful, nearly one- third (30.1 per cent) expressed dissatisfaction citing payment delays, long queues, rude treatment, lost documents and inaccurate information. There was considerable acceptance of eligibility review procedures which, for some, served to assuage feelings of shame at being 'on the dole'. Most respondents (74.3 per cent) said unequivocally they would report income for reasons of honesty, fairness to others, or fear of detection. Others would not report small amounts of casual earnings, justifying their non-compliance on grounds that payments failed to meet basic subsistence needs, or that income-reporting would unfairly disrupt payments. The findings suggest that client perceptions of fairness reinforce voluntary compliance.