Welfare: does it stop or
By STEVE NAFUS
Kansan Staff Correspondent
The American system of welfare is a dehumanizing and degrading process which breeds dependency into the welfare recipient.
Theoretically organized to help the poor become financially independent, the system in fact, hinders him and keeps him in a low income condition.
The welfare recipient quickly learns that he is penalized for working, rewarded for having more children and given more aid if he lives in a broken home.
In Lawrence, as in cities throughout the United States, this system has led to self-perpetuating state of dependency on government aid. If a welfare recipient finds a job, his check is reduced by the amount of his salary. Thus, he will receive the same momonthly income.
If a recipient loses his job, or if his wife bears another child, the county will increase the monthly check.
KU prof investigates
This system of government aid is being investigated by L. Keith Miller, KU assistant professor of human development and family life. Miller and his wife are using a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity Head Start program to look at problems of chronic low-income families here in Lawrence.
At their neighborhood center, 1035 Pennsylvania St., they are trying to discover how these
low-income families can free themselves from the grips of poverty.
"The idea of the self-help group is to allow people to broaden control of their own lives," said Miller. "Most low income families are socially isolated, not only from the larger community, but from their neighbors as well. They have never before gotten together to try to control their lives."
Miller explained many welfare families do not subscribe to a newspaper, thus, have no contact with the outside world. Television, virtually their only link, is mainly used for entertainment purposes.
Welfare programs are administered by authority figures from that outside world—"The Man." He can take the form of a policeman, landlord, or a welfare official.
With this lack of communication and understanding, distrust and fear of "The Man" is widespread. Every welfare recipient interviewed asked that his or her name not be used for fear of reprisal.
Not picky or cruel
John L. Derrick, director of the Douglas County Welfare Service, is aware of this feeling among the welfare recipients.
"We are not trying to be picky or cruel, but we are using public funds and must be careful; we try to be just," Derrick said.
Many people who come to.
Derrick's office seeking help are not eligible, the director said. He follows the rules set by the State of Kansas. Under these rules the main criterion for aid is need. The state considers itself responsible for the basics of survival-food, clothing and shelter. The amount of aid received is determined by a graduated schedule set by the state. The schedule takes into consideration the number of persons in the household and the number applying for aid in that household.
"The catch of welfare is that nobody can live on the basic allowance for very long, it's too small. The intention of the basic
allowance is that of a temporary measure," Derrick said.
Rent for welfare recipients is often overpriced, and the houses are usually shabby, tumbledown huts. There is no low-rent housing in Lawrence except one small complex for elderly people.
The welfare allowance for rent in Douglas County is only $50 per month. "It is next to impossible to find rental property in Lawrence for that amount of money," Derrick said, "and if found, it probably wouldn't be worth renting."
Because so many KU students are living in rentals of all prices, the low income renter is forced
to take what he can get.
Lawrence landlords, realizing they are in a monopolistic position, charge all the traffic will allow.
No food stamps
Food stamps, one of the best-known facets of the poverty program, are not available in Lawrence. Derrick said the possibilities for obtaining a food stamp program looked "bleak" last July, so he did not apply for them.
At that time, he explained, the federal government had appropriated $225 million for the food stamps and had received requests for more than $240 million worth of stamps.
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The main-traveled roads in Douglas County are lined with large, pleasant houses, with large yards and neatly clipped lawns. But on the back roads live 1,000 persons who receive from $95 to $200 each month from the county welfare department.
These 1,000 persons are only two per cent of Douglas County's population of 50,000-a forgotten minority.
In an average month, Kansas spends about seven and one-half million dollars on welfare programs. December, 1968, was typical, when $7,501,639 was doled out from the tax revenues.
Disorders made some general statements about welfare recipients.
The National Advisory Commission Report on Civil
"The basic fact is that the heads of those households who can work are working," the report said. "All but a small fraction of those on welfare are disabled by age, ill health or the need to care for their children."
The facts in Douglas County seem to support the state
seem to support the statement.
Of the 1,000 welfare recipients, 227 receive benefits to the aged, about $100 per month on the average. They are either not eligible for, or receive small pensions or Social Security payments. Too old to work, death alone will remove their
names from the welfare rolls.
An average of about 80 persons receive disability benefits, usually about $120 per month. The number varies when a temporary disability disappears and, along with it, eligibility for welfare.
Permanent disabilities have bred rumors. Men who look healthy are receiving checks for hidden health problems. John Derrick, director of the Douglas County Welfare Service, cited an example:
The doctors have told one welfare recipient that his heart is in bad shape and he cannot work. The man looks healthy, but the doctors will not allow
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said City Manager Ray Wells, is $290 monthly. This contrasts with the $242 KU pays some of its new workers.
All laborers, Wells said, including trash collectors, start at $309 monthly, or $1.76 per hour.
The city government is not bound by either of the minimum wage laws, Wells said, "But the City Commission has indicated in the past that they wanted to stay above what would be an acceptable minimum wage."
Largely because of the minimum wage law, starting wages at local manufacturing plants are somewhat higher than those paid by retail establishments. The Jayhawk Box company, personnel director Martin Jost said, starts all production workers at a minimum of $1.96 per hour. This is raised to $2.01 after 30 days and to $2.06 after two months.
Hallmark's manager said it starts every employee at $1.75 an hour or more. The local Stokely-Van Camp plant pays production workers a minimum of $1.79 hourly, Sylvia Kallsen, payroll clerk, said. After two months they are raised to $1.96. This rate applies to all Stokely wage earners, she said, including janitors and related maintenance help.
While local manufacturing plants offer better wages than many service and retail establishments, some workers feel the plants have consistently dragged their feet in paying wages on a par with the national average. A chronic source of tension concerns unions, management and the rights of each.
Union men assert that plants attempt to keep wages at a standard level to weaken unions.
One attempt to break a Union occurred three years ago at the National Alfalfa Dehydrating and Milling Company, said Sam Dougan, an employee at that plant. At that time, a district manager came around asking union members to sign a paper saying that they hadn't voted for a strike. Since no strike had been voted, Dougan said he and the other workers signed.
Several days later, the manager announced that the workers had voted the union out, Dougar recalls.
"That was a lie!" he exclaimed. "We didn't vote the union out! There was nothing else on that piece of paper."
The official who conducted the fraudulent survey is no longer with the company, Dougan said, but unpleasant memories remain.
This practice was repeatedly used at the Co-op fertilizer plant during the mid-sixities, said Victor Licktieg, union shop steward. It was halted four years ago after a new contract was signed. The contract provided that a worker be eligible for union membership after either 60 consecutive days or 75 accumulative days on the job.
Another trick used by local manufacturers, Dougan added, involved hiring an employee, letting him work during a probation period of 60 days, and then dropping him just before he became eligible to join the union. Then he would be rehired in a month or so and required to go through the unprotected, probationary period again.
Some persons said they feel that a solution to local unemployment and low wage situations is
currently on its way—in the form of increased industrialization in the Lawrence area.
Ultimately, it is generally agreed, there is no single, simplified solution to the local job-wage situation. The same knot of complexities which plague the national scene affect the local employment picture. Everything from the lack of a nurses' training program for local residents to the Vietnam war play their role in stimulating the local economy. The neglect of forty years cannot be rectified immediately.
Still there is much that can be done. An expanded program of vocational training can be established for nursing, secretarial work and other skills.
An improved system to let lower-income people know of available job openings and opportunities, could either be conducted within the State Employment Service office or outside of it.
Such programs of course would not be the entire answer. But they would be a start toward providing every local citizen with an adequate job. And as some Lawrence residents are now realizing it is only by attacking poverty at its roots—unemployment and underemployment—can Lawrence be saved from future tragedy.
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