Evening star., 1939-02-12
Relief Records
Are Unreliable,
Lewis Charges
Granting Of Higher
Security Case Budgets
Is Denounced
By DON S. WARREN.

DIV DON ,. VAhnLN.
Criticism of statistical methods
employed by the public assistance
division and the granting OF higher
budgets for social security cases than
to those approved for general relief
were voiced by Relief Investigator
Burdette G. Lewis in another section
of his report. released last night.
The investigator charged there
was some duplication in the records
of the numbers of persons denied
relief, that some records of the di-
vision were incomplete. and he ar
gued that a listing of reflections
could not be taken as a measure OF
the 'unmet' need.
Welfare Director Elwood Street,
told of the findings in the new Sec
ton of the printed report, regard
ing monthly statements of the pub
lie assistance division as to the
numbers of applications which were
rejected, declared: These figures
were not used, nor were they in
tended to be used, as an indication
of the unmet needs. Rather they
were included in the monthly re-
ports to show the volume being ham
died by the divisions staff"
Ordered on Same Footing.
Mr.. Street also revealed the Board
Of Public Welfare had considered
differentials in the budgets of diff
ferent classes of relief recipients at
its December meeting and had Or
dered, at a meeting January 80,
that all classes be placed on the
same footing in budgets. This study
was suggested first by Miss Alice
Hill, relief director, and was Or
dered by the board without know
ing that the subject was to be
dealt with by Mr.. Lewis in his re-
port, it was explained.
Meanwhile the Family Service
Association adopted resolution
urging that Congress approve de-
ficiency appropriation of 100000 to
provide additional case workers for
the public assistance division staff,
in order to provide a more adequate
staff to investigate the extra cases
resulting from discharge of hun
dreds of cases from the District w.
P. A.
In voicing criticisms of the sta
tistical reports of the public as
sistance division, Mr.. Lewis re-
ferred to the monthly reports for
May, 1898, from the Southwest
and Northeast stations. He said
study of 1872 applications for gen.
eral Cor direcD relief showed that
Ill per cent of the applications
were accepted, 6 per cent were du-
plications, 33.1 per cent were from
w. P. A. families, rs per cent were
from families receiving or eligible
to receive unemployment compen-
sation benefits, 04 per cent were
from National Youth Administra-
ton families, and that 419 per cent
were not receiving public assistance
currently.
No Demarcation Made.
Included among the 41.9 per cent
or BOT families (which were not re-
ceiving relief currently, he said, were
Sc applicants who did not wait for
an interview or did not furnish re-
quested information; 18 families
which had sufficient resources; 10
non-residents, and 20 families with
case members employed. He added
the monthly report Of the public
assistance division for last May
made no demarcation between the
various groups already receiving
public assistance and those not re-
ceiving assistance.
In his review of the report of the
relief branches, Mr.. Lewis stated:
"Of the $50 cases rejected because
Of inadequate funds by the public
assistance division, 339 or SIS per
cent had requested surplus foods
only, but were classified as appli-
cants for general public assistance.
'It cannot be assumed that the
request for surplus commodities
only signified no need for financial
: assistance since many applicants
are aware of public assistance divi-
sion intake policies regarding en-
ployables, but the indication is that
the volume of unmet needs is not
as great as presented by the public
assistance division statistics.
Little Known of Needs.
mo home Investigations were
made of the applicants rejected in
May, therefore little is actually
known of their real unmet needs,
but again the number of families
with works program employees and
unemployment compensation bene-
ficiaries together with duplicate ap-
plications, applicants not awaiting
interviews or refusing information
and families with sufficient re-
sources point to the general con-
(See D. c. RELIEF, Page B-2)