The Susso

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The Susso is an Australian slang term referring to welfare payments, originating in the Great Depression.

By late 1929, the economic depression had hit all Western countries. The prices of wool and wheat- two of the nation’s biggest exports had been in rapid decline. Overseas investments and loans started to disappear. As money became tight, there was a large decrease on spending on public work, which led to an increase in unemployment. The unemployment was further exacerbated by the falling income from primary producers. At the end of 1929, Australia's unemployment rate sat at around 13%. By 1932, it had peaked at a staggering 29%.

Though the downturn in the economy had a much greater effect on the lives of the poor, not even the very rich could ignore the situation, as evidence of the Depression could be found everywhere. It was seen in the dole queues, soup kitchens and shanty towns that sprang up across the nation. The Depression was illustrated by the estimated 40,000 homeless who had to create makeshift accommodation in public parks and fields. In the men that went wandering- ‘on the track’ in search of work, or even food. These men - estimated to be somewhere around 30,000 in numbers, had to report to a police station every week, where they could claim very basic rations of food.

By 1932, more than 60,000 people depended on sustenance payments - known as the susso, merely to survive. This was only for the truly destitute, who had been unemployed for a sustained period of time, and had no assets or savings. The susso was given in the form of staple, filling foods, such as bread and potatoes. It was immortalised in a contemporary children’s rhyme;

"We’re on the susso now,

We can’t afford a cow,

We live in a tent,

We pay no rent,

We’re on the susso now."