ment or strengthening of State departments of public welfare throughout the country and provided for equitable administration of assistance to needy people within a State. Although traditional responsibility of the States and localities for administering public assistance. was retained, certain provisions in the Social Security Act reflect the national interest, such as those relating to proper and efficient administration and consideration of income and resources in determining need for assistance. The act also provides for a fair hearing when a needy person has been denied aid or is dissatisfied with the amount of his assistance payment, or when his application has not been acted upon with reasonable promptness. This has protected needy persons against arbitrary or erroneous decisions of an individual staff member and strengthened State responsibility by providing for State review of a local decision. Most States define a needy person as one whose income and resources are too small to provide what the State has set as the minimum required for basic maintenance needs, and today aid is usually given to supplement any income and resources the applicant possesses up to this standard. However, standards in many States are still far below what many consider necessary to secure the essentials of well-being. Much of the increase in public assistance payments during the past two decades reflects increased living costs. For example, although there was an increase in the average monthly old-age assistance payment from $15.04 to $51.89 from 1936 to 1955, the actual purchasing power of today's payment is $26.58 in terms of the 1936 dollar. The 1950 amendment to the Social Security Act requiring the designation by each State of an authority to establish and maintain standards in institutions where assistance recipients reside has provided an impetus for a nationwide movement to raise standards of institutional care. There has also been increasing emphasis in administering assistance in such a way as to help the needy person make the maximum use of his capacities for self-help and to deal constructively with problems which have contributed to his need for assistance. Public assistance has helped to strengthen family life in many ways. By aiding the needy aged, blind, or disabled individual within his family setting, he has been enabled to remain at home without interruption of family life because of need alone. Through aid to dependent children the needy parent and child have been enabled to remain together, and children have been provided the opportunity of growing up in the setting of their own family relationships. Efforts toward rehabilitation of the needy disabled have helped some gain greater self-sufficiency and others to resume responsibility for the care and support of their families. Public assistance, in supplementing the old-age and survivors insurance program, has added to the basic economic underpinning which has enabled the needy family to preserve, in the face of adversity, the continuity of cherished relationships and other strengths of family living. Trends in Caseload and Nearly 6 million persons (5.8 million) received some form of public assistance in June 1955-3.5 percent of the total population, or approximately 1 in 28. This represented an increase of 200,000 from the preceding June, with the highest increase between November and December. The year's peak of 6.1 million was reached in March. All programs showed increases except old-age assistance. Expenditures for assistance payments from Federal, State, and local funds during fiscal 1955 amounted to $2,712 million, representing about 1 percent of personal income payments in the Nation. The Federal share of this expenditure was $1,351 million. The 5.8-percent increase in total expenditures reflected increases in average payments in each of the assistance programs, owing in part to increasing expenditures for medical care through vendor payments and higher standards of assistance in some States. OLD-AGE ASSISTANCE In June 1955, 2,549,000 persons received old-age assistance, a decrease of about 33,800 persons, or 1.3 percent, from the previous June. The greatest monthly reduction, 8,700, occurred in October 1954 when a substantial number of cases were closed following receipt of higher old-age and survivor insurance benefits provided by the 1954 amendments to the act. Only 14 States had higher caseloads at the end of the year than at the beginning. The national average monthly payment for old-age assistance was $52.30 in June 1955 as compared with $51.45 a year earlier. AID TO DEPENDENT CHILDREN About 620,000 families received aid to dependent children in June 1955, an increase of about 38,500 families, or 6.6 percent, from the preceding June. Increases in caseloads were general throughout the country with reductions in only 7 States. The average payment per family in June 1955 was $86.78 ($24.04 per person) as compared with $85.08 per family ($23.81 per person) in June 1954. 1 Caseloads, averages, and total expenditures in all programs except general assistance are based on data including vendor payments for medical care and cases receiving only medical care. AID TO THE BLIND Nearly 104,000 persons received aid to the blind in June 1955, an increase of about 3,000 during the year. Only 16 States had fewer recipients, and 11 States had lower average assistance payments at the end of the year than at the beginning. The national average monthly payment in June 1955 was $57.41, as compared with $55.80 in the previous June. AID TO THE PERMANENTLY AND TOTALLY DISABLED About 236,800 persons in 43 States received aid to the permanently and totally disabled in June 1955, an increase of 25,100 from June 1954, owing largely to the relative newness of the program. The average monthly payment was $54.93 in June 1955, as compared with $53.51 in June 1954. GENERAL ASSISTANCE Some 310,000 cases received State and/or locally financed general assistance in June 1955, an increase of 11,000 or 3.8 percent from the preceding June. This was a decrease of 71,000 cases from the year's high of 381,000 reached in March. That peak represented the largest number receiving general assistance since April 1951 but was 271,000 under the postwar peak of 652,000 in March 1950. The average payment per case for June 1955 was $53.78, as compared with $51.62 a year earlier. Effect on Public Assistance of the A 1954 amendment extended old-age and survivors insurance coverage to about 10 million more people in the course of a year (over half of them farm operators and farm workers). This is expected to have a significant long-range effect in reducing the number of aged dependent on assistance, since many come from agricultural groups to which insurance coverage was extended. It is estimated that by about 1980 a very high proportion of the aged will receive old-age and survivors insurance benefits; those who do will need old-age assistance only if their insurance benefits are low or if they have special needs. Some of those not receiving insurance benefits may also need old-age assistance. However, the immediate effect in reducing the number dependent on public assistance is more limited. Many of those currently receiving old-age assistance never had and are not likely to obtain cover 368636-56- 4 age under the insurance program because during their working years the coverage was limited. Others are eligible for only minimum insurance benefits insufficient to meet their basic needs or have unusual expenses, such as costly medical and/or nursing care. As a result, although the proportion of aged population receiving assistance dropped from 22.5 percent in September 1950 to 17.9 percent in June 1955, the rate of reduction was only slightly higher during 1955, the year following the amendments, than in the preceding year (1.3 percent as compared with 1.0 percent). The liberalized benefits, however, resulted in an average increase of $5 a month in the insurance benefit payment of aged persons receiving supplementary old-age assistance. A somewhat smaller increase was received by most wives of retired workers and most widows receiving monthly benefits in excess of $25. Widows' benefits at the previous minimum of $18.80 were raised to $30 a month. As a result, although about 86 percent of the aged receiving both assistance and benefits in September 1954 continued to receive assistance, the amount of assistance was reduced; 2 percent of the cases were closed. Aid to dependent children families also receiving benefits had an average increase of over $8 a month per family. About 73 percent had their assistance payments reduced, and 3 percent of the cases were closed. Payments for the other old-age assistance and aid to dependent children cases were not reduced. The increase in benefits resulted in a reduction of almost $2.1 million a month in payments to those receiving both old-age assistance and insurance benefits and $197,000 for aid to dependent children families also receiving benefits, in September 1954. In many cases, the increase in benefits released some State and/or local funds to meet current unmet need of recipients. AGED PERSONS RECEIVING BOTH INSURANCE AND ASSISTANCE In February 1955, about 489,000 insurance beneficiaries received. old-age assistance to supplement minimum or near minimum insurance. benefits insufficient for their basic needs or to meet special needs. They represented nearly a fifth (19.2 percent) of all old-age assistance recipients. The number receiving both assistance and benefits increased 77 percent since September 1950 and 5.6 percent since February 1954. As a result of benefit increases provided by the 1954 amendments, the average old-age assistance payment for recipients receiving both insurance and assistance was reduced from $43.00 in February 1954 to $40.92 in February 1955. Aged beneficiary-recipients get, on the average, a lower benefit and a lower assistance payment than those receiving only insurance benefits or only assistance payments. For recipients who were not drawing insurance benefits, the average oldage assistance payment was $54.20. FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN RECEIVING BOTH INSURANCE AND ASSISTANCE More than 32,000 families received both insurance benefits and assistance in February 1955-5.2 percent of the families receiving aid to dependent children in February 1955 in comparison with 5.9 percent a year earlier. Since only 1 family in 6 receives assistance because of the death of a parent-the risk covered by the insurance program-the aid to dependent children program is affected to a more limited extent by expansion of insurance coverage and liberalization of benefits. The average assistance payment in February to families receiving both types of benefits was $66.71; to families not receiving insurance benefits the average assistance payment was $87.17. Program Developments The need for welfare services, in addition to financial assistance, has been increasingly recognized as illness and disability became major factors contributing to dependency, and the relatively large number of families receiving aid because the father has deserted gave evidence of social problems on which further help is needed. Increased emphasis was given to the broad purpose of public assistance— helping needy persons through the provision of income and services to achieve as much economic and personal independence as possible. To increase the effectiveness of administration in carrying out broad program objectives, work undertaken during the year was based on (1) an evaluation of changing program needs in planning to provide assistance and services effectively; and (2) an analysis of operations in planning for the most appropriate and efficient administration at Federal, State, and local levels. Full utilization was made of the experience, knowledge, and skill of all those directly concerned with the administration of the program-State and local public assistance staff, regional and central office staff of the Bureau, and those in other agencies and organizations both within and outside the Department. This was evidenced, for example, by requesting and utilizing State consideration of policy material in early developmental stages; joint participation of Federal, State, and local staff in projects in specific subject areas; wide regional and central office participation in work planning; and utilization of technical and lay advisory groups in evaluating program needs and legislative proposals, detailed below. |