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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
XII-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
The Erie County Department of Social Welfare has fixed rent ceilings it is willing to pay for welfare recipients. However, because of housing shortages in Negro neighborhoods, exceptions frequently are made. A single caseload may have between 20 and 30 exceptions.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-20
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
IX-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
If a man picked your pocket today, most likely he'd go to jail.But if he taps your wallet via the Welfare Department route, the chances are that he'll never see the inside of a cell.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-16
VIII-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
Tony has received public assistance almost all of his adult life. His son was on welfare in Erie, Pa. A daughter, living at home now, gets monthly Aid to Dependent Children checks for herself and Tony's grandson. Here are some excerpts from his relief history: 1932 - Victor found man had a car licensed in his grandmother's name. Victor knows that the man drives car and is out nights with it. Man doing window washing but denies it.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-15
VI-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
In New York City, for example, ADC in 1958 supported 54,000 illegitimate children.On the other side of the coin the question is often put this way: What do you propose to do? Let these children starve because of the mistakes of their parents?
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-13
V-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
In Erie County today and in other New York counties, there are thousands of men and women who weekly deduct part of their take home pay and give it to a needy parent, an elderly aunt or children whose early marriage is being threatened by financial shoals.But there are others whose charity never began at home or anywhere else.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-11
III-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
As a group, many of the relief recipients have become a dependent society. During the three months I was a caseworker I gave your tax dollars to children who are fourth-generation welfare cases."Don't let them save you," was the advice I received when I first started. "Some of these people, you'll find, know more about welfare than all of us. They've got every angle."
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-09
IV-"Our Costly Dilemma" - Ed [Edgar] May - Buffalo Evening News
In a gray filing cabinet in the office of the Erie County Welfare Department where I worked there are supplies of forms that include a list of 65 different ones most frequently used by caseworkers.Each, used in duplicate or triplicate, serves a particular function in the paper empire that has grown with the administration of public welfare.
Buffalo Evening News 1960-06-10