ance only to supplement low benefit payments or to pay for medical or nursing care or other special needs.

More immediate effects are anticipated from the liberalization of the old-age and survivors insurance system. Some 463,000 aged persons now receiving old-age assistance to supplement their insurance benefits will get increases of about $5 per month. About 32,000 families who are now receiving aid to dependent children payments to supplement their insurance benefits will also get benefit increases. Some additional widows and children receiving public assistance will now receive benefits because of the extension of protection to the survivors of wage earners who died after 1939 and before September 1950 and who, although they had at least 6 quarters of coverage, were not insured under the provisions of the 1939 act.

In addition, amendments to the Vocational Rehabilitation Act which extend and improve vocational rehabilitation services will increase the services available to the disabled, some of whom receive. public assistance. Better care for needy persons who are ill or disabled should also result from the new amendments to the hospital survey and construction provisions of the Public Health Service Act,5 which make funds available to States for diagnostic or treatment. centers, chronic disease hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes.

Another action taken by the 83d Congress will enable the Bureau to begin work on certain responsibilities delegated to the Department by the Federal Civil Defense Administration. An appropriation of funds will enable the Bureau to plan a program for cash assistance to civilians injured or in need because of enemy attack and for clothing to civilians in need because of attack."

Caseload and Expenditures'

About 6 percent more needy persons received assistance in June 1954 than a year earlier. From 5.3 million in June 1953 the total number, including those receiving general assistance, increased to 5.6 million in June 1954. The old-age assistance program was the only one which showed a decline. All the other four programs showed an increase in the number of persons receiving aid. Factors contributing to this increase included the normal growth of the relatively new program of aid to the permanently and totally disabled; the discontinuance, early in 1954, of benefits paid by the United Mine Workers to disabled miners and families of deceased miners, many of

* Public Law 565, 83d Congress, approved Aug. 3, 1954.

& Public Law 482, 83d Congress, approved July 12, 1954. Public Law 663, 83d Congress, approved Aug. 26, 1954.

Averages and totals include money payments to recipients and vendor payments for medical care and cases receiving only such payments,

whom became eligible for public assistance; and an increase in the number of persons receiving general assistance, probably reflecting somewhat lower levels of employment in some areas of the country.

The 1.6 percent increase in expenditures for assistance in 1954 over the preceding 12 months, an increase of $40 million, brought total Federal, State, and local expenditures for public assistance for the fiscal year to $2,563 million. Monthly average payments for families receiving aid to dependent children rose $1.10 and the average per general assistance case was up $4.46. There was little change from last year in the average payments for recipients of other types of assistance for the Nation as a whole. Average payments by State and by category are given in chart 4.

Although a few States had to reduce payments because of limited funds, several others raised payments to meet a higher proportion of need or to reflect price changes that occurred in the preceding year or earlier. Vendor payments for medical care accounted for a sizable portion of the increase in a few States with greater than average change in payments.

At the end of the year fewer than 1 in every 30 in the population was receiving public assistance. The proportion of the population receiving assistance, by States, is given in chart 5. The total expenditures of $2,563 million represented 0.9 percent of personal income payments in the Nation in the calendar year 1953. The Federal share of this expenditure was $1,321 million.

Old-age assistance.-About 26,500 fewer persons received old-age assistance in June 1954 than in June 1953. The 2,582,000 persons receiving assistance represented a decrease of 1 percent from the number in June a year earlier and 227,000 fewer than the number aided in the peak month of September 1950. In June 1954, for the Nation as a whole, 184 out of every 1,000 persons aged 65 and over received old-age assistance, the lowest proportion since before World War II.

The national trend downward, starting in October 1950, continued for most States during the year. More than half the States had fewer aged recipients in every month of the year. In some of the States. with larger-than-average decreases in caseloads, stricter policies regarding relatives' responsibility were the primary factor in the declines. The largest percentage decrease for any State, however, occurred in Montana where a new lien law gave the State a claim against the estates of recipients of old-age assistance. The national average monthly old-age assistance payment in June 1954 was $51.45 as compared with $51.08 in June 1953.

Aid to dependent children.—About 17,600, or 3 percent, more families were receiving aid to dependent children in June 1954 than in

339010-55- -4

the preceding June. Nearly three-fourths of the States were aiding more families in June 1954 than a year earlier, including 12 States in which the number of families represented an increase of more than 10 percent, with one State showing nearly 30-percent increase. On the other hand, 13 States were aiding fewer families than in the previous year; relatively large decreases occurred in 5 jurisdictions. The average monthly payment per family in June 1954 was $85.08 (or $23.81 per person) as compared with $83.98 per family (or $23.89 per person) in June 1953.

Aid to the permanently and totally disabled.-Forty-two States, as compared with 39 a year earlier, are now administering programs with Federal financial participation provided under a 1950 amendment to the Social Security Act. Connecticut, Minnesota, and Tennessee, which established programs during the year, contributed to the 18-percent increase in the number of recipients. The total number of recipients in the 42 States was 211,700 in June 1954, as compared with 179,400 in 39 States in 1953. The average monthly payment was $53.51 as against $53.72 in June 1953.

Aid to the blind.-About 2,000 recipients were added during the year to the aid to the blind program, bringing the total to about 101,000 in June 1954. All jurisdictions are administering aid to the blind with Federal financial participation. The average monthly payment in June 1954 was $55.80 as compared with $55.53 in June 1953.

General assistance.-The 299,000 cases on the rolls in June 1954 represented an increase of 16.5 percent from the preceding June. Caseloads increased in two-thirds of the 48 jurisdictions for which data are available; in about half the States they rose by 10 percent or more, including 11 States where the increases exceeded 30 percent. Fewer cases were reported in 16 States with the largest decrease due to continued transfer of cases to the program of aid to the permanently and totally disabled. General assistance, financed entirely from State and/or local funds, is affected by lower employment levels to a greater extent than the federally aided assistance programs, since it includes a larger proportion of persons who are actually or potentially employable. The national monthly average per case was $51.62 in June 1954 as compared with $47.16 a year earlier.

Effect of Old-Age and Survivors
Insurance on Public Assistance

As indicated in chart 6, the increase in the number of aged persons receiving old-age and survivors insurance benefits during the past few years has been accompanied by a decline in the number of aged persons dependent on public assistance. In 1954 almost twice as many aged