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A Way Out of the Welfare Mess
After a week of training lectures on the job of a caseworker, my supervisor offered me the first of several helpful hints: "The main thing is to get the aid out," he said. "You can always check things later if you have suspicions." But "later" - as it turned out - I had more and more cases and there was never any time. Within two months, in fact, I was the government assigned head of household for 160 families.
Harper's 1961-10-01
Our Costly Dilemma
May I commend you for your series of articles on public welfare. The presentation to the public of the problems of public welfare is long overdue.May I also suggest that the article on the problems under the category of Aid to Dependent Children did not present strongly enough the viciousness of the out-of-wedlock situation.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-25
XIV--"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
Spend money to save money? In isolated experiments across the nation, the question has been answered. By spending welfare tax dollars you ultimately save them. For Erie County, saddled with a near $30,000,000 annual relief bill, many answers are available.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-22
XIII-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
"I'm wasting my time working. I'd be better off on welfare." The man holding the steaming cup of coffee could have been your neighbor, the worker at the next machine or the bus passenger sharing a seat. What he said is repeated often in the mounting public distress over high welfare costs. It is the echo of revelations of laxity, chiseling, laziness and dishonesty. It is also wrong. Because a man would be better off "on the welfare" only if he wanted to feed and clothe each of his children for less than a dollar a day.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-21
XI-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
Every day in Erie County there are scores of men, women and children sitting in doctors' waiting rooms. When they come out their bill will be sent to you - the taxpayer.Today, too, there are hundreds occupying public and private hospital beds. When they are discharged the statement will be sent to you - the taxpayer.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-18
VII-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
Joey P. had been on welfare for a month. He filled out job applications at half-a-dozen Buffalo plants, hitched a ride to the Niagara Power Project and visited the N.Y. State Employment office regularly. What he told me, as a caseworker for the Erie County Department of Social Welfare, could almost be a recording of what other workers hear repeated day after day, week after week. In many cases its true. But when it comes from men who have a two or three-year relief ride, then it sounds as if the needle got stuck.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-14
I-"Our Costly Dilemma: Inside Welfare: Close-up of a Staggering Problem" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
Every minute your clock ticks, New York State Welfare costs average $1075. Each day, the relief cash register totals about $1,547,945. And when the calendar reached Dec. 31, 1959, the bill for helping the needy in New York State stood at a single-year record of $565,000,000. For three months this writer spent some of that money as a caseworker for the Erie County Department of Social Welfare.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-07