Evening star., 1962-09-02
Welfare Reform


Commissioners new proposals are the
total or final answer to the District
welfare problem. 1t is clear that the
year ahead will see only a beginning
on the difficult job of house cleaning
and, where necessary, extending and
revising aid to the needy. On the whole,
however, the reform package presented
to the Byrd subcommittee on Friday
is constructive and workable approach,
the major elements of which should be
put into effect without delay.
Its emphasis, and properly so, is
on an inveStigative staff capable of
removing the chiselers and the unde-
serving now on the rolls, and on halting
others at the point of application for
relief. The SIT million a year expected
to be saved by vigorous enforcement
of the rules will suffice not only to pay
the costs Of the cleanup, but to finance
substantial degree Of legitimate and
essential new welfare expenditures.
Immediate correction Of the lax and
incredibly sloppy administration which
has permeated the Department of Public
Welfare in the past, however, is no less
essential. For here, in reality, lies a
large measure Of responsibility for the
scandals which have shocked Wash
ingtonians and touched off Nation
wide investigations of welfare programs.
At one point on Friday, Senator
Byrd Of West Virginia, the chairman
of the Senate District Appropriations
Subcommittee, led welfare officials
through recitation of past investi-
gative procedures. 1t was a damning
indictment. In some instances, 1t was
disclosed, relief checks have continued
to be mailed after recipients were
stricken from the rolls. In others, Of
ficials have not even bothered to visit
the homes Of applicants to check their
eligibility. Among the remedial steps
proposed in the pending administrative
Shakeup are the establishment of a
top-level controller with far-reaching
administrative powers, managerial as
sistance from the GAO, and the addition
of clerical workers to take over duties
which have bound social workers too
closely to their desks. These all are
long overdue.
Vigorous enforcement, however, will
not come without price. For additional
provisions inevitably will have to be
made to care for some of the children
whose parents are removed from the
rolls for good cause. How will this be
done? Obviously foster home and day
care programs must be expanded and
institutional facilities must be increased,
particularly at the Junior Village. AS
Senator Byrd says, this is "a distressing
problem" so difficult "that one hardly
knows where to begin" Certainly the
full answer is not yet in sight, but
neither is the full scope of the problem.
AS to the dimensions Of the en-
forcement drive, we think Senator Byrd
is right in leaning toward a program
which will stretch the investigation of
the total present caseload over three
years rather than 81 months. This will
lessen somewhat the impact on the
children involved. It will ease the
serious personnel-recruitment Job which
lies ahead. 1t will minimize the danger
of biting off more than welfare officials,
at one time, can chew. Among the other
portions of the welfare package, the
new proposal to extend limited relief
grants to unemployed fathers requires
long, hard look. Certainly con-
vincing case for this new category of
relief has not yet been made. Similarly,
in their appearance the other day, the
Commissioners were totally unprepared
to Justify their generalized suggestion
that new legislation is needed to elimi-
nate fraud.
Senator Byrd takes the attitude
that the Welfare Department will have
enough to do in enforcing the rules
now on the books, and in implement
ing major procedural reforms. This is
sound. District officials, from the Com
miSsioners on down, however, would be
wise also to heed the warning that
Congress next year will hold them
strictly accountable for their use of
the additional authority and personnel
which it now appears are virtually
certain to be provided before the cur
rent session ends.