Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. state government relief paid to the unemployed, esp. during the 1930s depression.

c.1932		S. MacDonald ‘The Dole’ in Seal (1999) 95: The Government gave us a handout / That kept body and soul. / Some people called it the ‘susso’, / The out-of-work called it ‘the dole’.
1947		Bradford (PA) Era 27 June 2/6: Australian slang favors words ending in ‘o.’ Thus ‘mucko’ for sailor, ‘rabbo’ for rabbit, ‘reffo’ for refuge and ‘susso’ for sustenance.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 50: Susso: The pre-World War II version of the dole. ‘On the susso’ was an expression of derision used by silvertails, and one of defiance by those on it. Technically one who is receiving a government handout.

2. one who is receiving the relief; thus on the susso, receiving state benefits.

c.1932		in Seal (1999) 95: We’re on the susso now / We’re not behind a plough / We live in a tent / We pay no rent / We’re on the susso now.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 51: On the susso, in receipt of unemployed sustenance.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 44: Some of those who still had work looked down on the unemployed, the ‘sussos’.
1963		F.J. Hardy Legends from Benson’s Valley 190: On me own, I’m nobody. Just a susso.
1986		see sense 1.