HomeMy WebLinkAbout1936-12-20-WELFARE-rpt.pdf To the Board of Selectmen.
Your Committee has studied at some length the operation of
the Welfare Department with a particular view of learning if
possible the underlying reasons for the relatively high level
of relief expenditures under Chapter 117, General Laws.
In this study we have had the fullest possible cooperation
from Messrs. Mitchel and Morse and the aid they have extended to
us has been invaluable Much of this aid has been of a nature
requiring from these gentlemen much time beyond their normal
working hours and we feel that this Committee is much indebted
to them.
Throughout this study the Committee has been at pains to
avoid looking into, examining or otherwise learning either the
names or history of any individual or family at any time receiving
aid from the Town. We have sought to make our study and our
recommendations entirely without reference to individual cases.
We have interpreted our work to include two phases, (1)
study of the execution of the policies of your Board by the
Welfare Department and (2) examination of the policies them-
selves in light of our understanding of the Law
Administration. In our opinion, the execution of policies
by the Welfare Department is entirely satisfactory and we believe
conducted by Messrs. Mitchel and Morse with an unusual sense of
value as to the rights and duties of the Taxpayers as represented
by the Town, and, of the interests and welfare of the unfortunate
individuals receiving aid.
It is perhaps inevitable that on occasion there may be
instances where the Town may through its Welfare Department
unwittingly fail in some degree to satisfy its duties under
the Law; it is equally ae inevitable that some individuals
may feel entitled to greater aid than it is possible to give;
and in like manner, probable that at times certain individuals
have demanded and succeeded in securing a degree of aid not
justified by their circumstances Such things are to be expected
but we feel that in view of the growing and high level of demand
upon the Department, the difficult nature of the work, and the
limitations of time which two men can give, the department is
remarkably well administered and the personnel to be highly
praised for their work.
Additional personnel might well lighten burden of effort
upon Messrs. Mitchel and Morse; such would also perhaps diminish
(2)
the total expenditures through more intensive checking of welfare
recipients. It is however doubtful if the added expense of
additional personnel would be much more than offset by the
reduction of costs.
It is, therefore, our opinion that the situation is
not greatly to be improved by any changes in actual adminis-
tration of policies or increase in Department personnel but
rather by a change in policy itself
Policies of the Welfare Department We believe that the
Selectmen will find it advisable to re-consider and revise
the underlying policies of the Department in light of the
following observations
Examination of the number of Welfare recipients receiving
some aid, temporary or continuous, during the six months
January 1, 1936 to June 30, 1936, shows the following (see
Exhibit A for detail)
Aid rendered to 147 able-bodied men over 16 years of age;
Aid rendered to 144 able-bodied women over 16 years of age;
Aid rendered to 54 men, temporarily or permanently disabled;
Aid rendered to 42 women, physically unable to work;
Aid rendered 257 children (under 16 years of age) usually
through the family;
Expenditures of the Departthent show no appreciable
diminution (a) as a result of improved economic conditions
and (b) in the summer months as compared to winter months.
There is instead a tendency toward increase in welfare
costs at the present time, and in all years a definite
tendency for costs during summer months to be approximately
the same as in winter months.
In a period of improving economic conditions, it is
difficult to avoid the impression that the able-bodied men
and women are not making the continuous effort to rehabilitate
themselves which a proper sense of personal responsibility and
consideration of the taxpayers would seem to require. This
view is strengthened by the following observations
1. Difficulty of townspeople in securing domestic servants
and the many such jobs open to able-bodied men and women
in the presence of a group of 144 able-bodied women, 31
of whom are single persons, receiving aid from the Town,
as well as 147 able-bodied men, of whom 63 are single men,
likewise on relief at some time during the six months period.
2. Almost complete absence of men and women calling at private
homes and business establishments in search of work, even though
the Welfare lists show that nearly three-fourths of adults
receiving aid from the Town are able-bodied;
(3)
3. The presence on W. P. A. projects of only 71 out of
147 able-bodied men, and, of only 14 able-bodied women;
4. The recognized shortages for various types of labor
reported by business enterprises during the past year
which shortage contrasts sharply with the continued
high level of Welfare costs and the number of Welfare
recipients who aze able-bodied.
We feel that this conditions is fundamentally traceable,
insofar as able-bodied persons are concerned, to the observable
break-down in the morale and sense of individual responsibility
in a substantial number of instances; that it is probable that
many able-bodied persons have come bo believe that the Town
is responsible for them, irrespective of their own efforts in
their own behalves
Economic conditions, public opinion, action of the various
forme of government have all contributed to that impression---
in other words, it is perhaps inevitable that such a loss of
a sense of personal responsibility would occur The present
Welfare Law, in reality a Pauper Law of many years standing,
relies upon two factors to maintain that sense of personal
responsibility,
a) The natural pride of every individual which induces
him to avoid the stigma of pauper aid until every possible
source of employment and income has been exhausted. . .and
to rehabilitate himself as speedily as humanly possible
after once receiving aid;
b) The right and legal power of the Town to transfer any
individual receiving Welfare aid to the Town Infirmary or
Poor Farm.
Neither of these factors operate with the forcer they formerly
possessed; the Town now has no Infirmary, and, the long continued
depression, prodigal expenditures of the Federal government and
state and municipal governments in the matter of creating work,
the generous, sympathetic and willing aid extended by citizens
all must naturally create the impression to some persons that the
community is responsible for their well being, regardless of their
own efforts.
Under those circumstances, it is not unnatural that
some individuals, fully able-bodied, should feel that the Town's
responsibility for their welfare extends to the point where
(4)
1. Persons employed need no longer make provisions for
seasonal layoffs by conserving a-portion of ltheir incomes
as was the practice heretofore---the entire income may
now be spent and the Town called upon for support during
such periods of seasonal unemployment. the large number
of able-bodied persons intermittently receiving aid from
the Town suggests if it does not conclusively demonstrate
that this factor is operating to raise and maintain our
welfare costs at a high level;
2. Persons unemployed need no longer accept or search for
any employment, at any wages which can be secured, and
in any locality, but instead may await (while living at
the expense of the Town) the particular kind of work, at
the desired hours, wages, and other conditions which to
them seem acceptable. Again, the presence on Welfare
of large numbers of able-bodied men and women supports
the view that this conception of Welfare is widely
prevalent.
As we have said, it is perhaps not unnatural that such
impressions should have been created but their existence none-
the-less denotes a breakdown of the sense of personal responsi-
bility to a degree which appears to be very great.
The danger in the prevalence of those impressions is
less the current cost of relief, temporary or permanent, to
those who hold such views than it is in the virtual certainty
that
1. The apparent willingness of the Town to care for those
who should properly anticipate occasional seasonal unemployment
and those who insist upon awaiting exactly the kind of work
desired, must eventually lead still others to avail them-
selves of the same opportunity---and the undoubted outcome
can only be a steadily growing number of persons dependent
upon the Town rather than upon themselves;
2. The presence in the Town of any substantial number of
citizens and individuals whose position will be a source
of discontent to themselves and an undesirable and costly
social as well as economic factor to the Town, will militate
against the future of the Town;
3 Most important and most distressing, this condition must
gradually extend into a second generation---in the past five
years some children have grown to maturity and as time goes
on, others will grow to adulthood without ever having known
anything but that the community apparently is responsible
for their welfare, regardless of their own efforts.
(5)
We feel that these dangers will be magnified by the
probable intention of the Federal government to turn back to
states and communities the burden of relief perhaps in the
very near future. This may well mean complete cessation of
such activities as W. P. A. and similar agencies.
Even though such a development does not occur, the
Town, in our opinion, faces a grave future development in
the three respects just above listed. There is forecast for
us as well as for other communities a future dependence of
a growing number of citizens upon the Town unless steps
can now be taken to reconcile the interests involved and
a long-term and sound policy of Welfare initiated.
It is, we feel, both the privilege and the duty„
moral as well as legal, for Town to aid the permanently
disabled, the children and their mothers as provided by
Chapter 117;
It is likewise a legal and moral duty to extend temporary
aid to able-bodied men and women in periods of want, but
in our opinion and under the law only when
a) They have exhausted every other source of self-help;
b) When they continuously search for and accept any
kind of employment at any wages available in order to
at least partially contribute to their own support;
It is the duty of the Town to safe-guard the rights and
interests of its tax-paying citizens and to avoid depriving
them and their children of material and social advantages
through allowing to develop in the Town a scale of taxation
and social deterioration certain to follow the situation
herein outlined.
We believe that the Town should realize that the administration
of Welfare has now passed beyond the point where the only concern
should be the economic welfare of unfortunate individuals alone, and
must embrace a far broaderconceptionand a far longer period of time
than day-to-day or year-to-year operation.
In particular, we feel that the Selectmen should include in
their Welfare policies recognition of the grave consequences of;
(6)
a) Continuing any policy which tends to cause a growth
in the number of persons who feel that the Town is both
legally and morally responsible for their livelihood
irrespective of their own efforts for themselves;
b) Failing to adopt a policy of requiring of individuals
themselves a sustained effort to rehabilitate themselves
and thus avoiding in part at least the deteriorating
Social and cultural effect of a condition where children
of Welfare recipients gradually grow into manhood and
womanhood dependent upon the Town for their support in
whole or part;
c) Neglecting to incorporate into its policy a means of
combatting social deterioration and its effect upon the
character and lives of the children of other citizens
who are taught by their parents-to be self-reliant,
ambitious and self-sustaining---only to have those teachings
apparently contradicted by contact with children whose
rearing has been in a contrary atmosphere.
We think that these considerations are vastly more
important to the Town and its people than is the stabilizing
or reduction of current relief e±penditures, as important
as they may be from a strictly economic standpoint. In our
recommendations which follow we have in mind the human values
of those who receive snA those who supply funds for Welfare,
and especially the children of both groups
RECOPM4ENDATIONS
In a practical sense, the moves possible necessarily be
limited to those permissible under Chapter 117, General Laws.
The law requires the Town to relieve and support all poor and
indigent persons lawfully settled therein whenever they stand
in need thereof. Relief must be rendered to qualified cases.
On the other hand, the law also provides (Section 2) that
"the board of public welfare shall have the care of such persons....
and see that they are suitable relieved, supported and employed
in the infirmary or in such other manner as the town directs, or
otherwise at the discretion of the board."
This provision entitles and we believe the future outlook
makes it necessary that the board fully enforce that requirement
as regards-able-bodied men and women. We do not necessarily have
in mind re-establishment of the Infirmary which moves does not
appear advisable; we do not have in mind public works which
represent another form of `Town responsibility rather than
individual responsibility. We do have in mini the following•
(7)
First, the adoption of the viewpoint and the policy that
the town is neither legally nor morally responsible for
providing the able-bodied man and woman with anything
except temporary aid;
a) Assumption by the Town of the responsibility for
creating employment through public Works or other
activities, with or without the cooperation of state
and Federal governments, amounts we believe, to assuming
responsibility for individuals not contemplated in the
law and thus strenthening the impressions which lead
to a breakdewn of self-responsibility;
b) Assumption by the Town of the responsibility for
providing able-bodied men and women with a fixed
minimum of food, rent and clothing, and and allowing
it to be known that the Town will make up the individual's
inability to earn that minimum thragh Welfare funds.
We recognize that a standard of suitable Relief must
be determined upon to control such costs, but our point
is that such a standard should not be known to-recipients
and that they should not be allowed to gain the impression
that the Town is required to supply such simply because
of temporary or seasonal unemployment. To permit that
is to establish what is nothing more than a "dole."
Second, and more positive, we recommend as regards able
bodied men and women over 16 or 18 years of age only that they
be advised of the fact that Section 2 of Chapter 117 will be
continuously and rigidly enforced.
We think that such a move is essential inorder to stimulate
individuals to rehabilitate themselves, and, to avoid the social
and cultural deterioration which threatens to be progressive
with the progressive breakdown of the sense of self-responsibility.
To give effect to that policy we submit for your earnest
consideration the following essentially simple steps entirely
within the law•
1. That every able-bodied man and woman be required to
assidiously and continuously search for work every day
they are drawing Welfare aid and spend thereat at least
four to six hours;
2. In evidence that this requirement has been fulfilled
to submit to the Welfare Administrator written evidence
signed by prospective employers interviewed, on slips provided
by the Town for the purpose----at least three such slips to be
submitted for each day which the party remains on Welfare.
(8)
These requirements are entirely within the term "suitable
employment" contained in Section 2 of the Welfare law (Chapter 117.)
We believe that the search for work every day and the return
of slips signed by prospective employers, and particularly the notation
thereon by such prospective employer of any refusal to accept work
because of hours, wages, or other factors, will tend demonstrate
the essential attitude of the Town, namely;
That the able-bodied individual is and must be responsible
for himself or herself to the fullest-extent of their own
efforts at all times while on Welfare---and that the Town's
aid is extended only during such period as that continuous
effort proves unavailing.
In addition, we feel that the simple steps here recommended
will have the constructive and social advantages of;
1. Requiring continuous personal exertion by the individual
in his own behalf;
2. Impress upon his family and children particularly that
the individual is still responsible for himself;
3. Provide the individual seeking work with the habit of
so doing, and also with a familiarity with available sources
of employment that will lead in many instances to complete
rehabilitation;
4. It will indicate to all citizens that the policy of the Town
is not to provide support to able-bodied individuals who refuse
to accept any work offered but instead wait upon exactly the kind
of work, at the desired amount of compensation, the individual
prefers;
5. It will reflect to the seasonally unemployed that such
seasonal unemployment is something they must learn to provide
against without recourse to the Town if at all possible---either
by savings, seeking other employment even of a- casual nature,
or, being compelled by the Town to render self-service in
seeking work in return for Welfare aid given---;
0. It will reflec t to the Community and to those temporarily
in distress that the Town intends to fulfill its legal and moral
duty to all concerned, with sympathetic and constructive but also
impartial understanding of both aspects of the matter---that having
to do with the ultimate social effect upon the Town and the individual
as well as that having to do with the immediate relief of economic
want.
(91
We recognize that there are necessarily some difficulties
in adopting such a plan and that modification and realistic
interpretation must of course be worked out carefully and with
full consideration to human feelings and values. We believe,
however, that your Board will catch the spirit of our recommendation;
and see that it is an endeavor to constructively restore to
able-bodied individuals a full sense of personal responsibility.
Your Board will recognize with us that unless that one
thing can be accomplished, our Town in common with others,
must gradually tend toward a complete "dole" system which
now prevails abroad and which arose from precisely the same
situation as that we now face.
We believe from our study of the situation that the
four recommendations herein made will, if fully adopted,
avoid for us such a social deterioration. We believe further
that these recommendations involve no hardship upon any
individual in excess of that which is the lot of every
citizens, namely the responsibility for his own welfare upto
the full extent of his abilities and efforts; and they contg,mplate
no reduction in Welfare aid to those who fulfill that responsibility
to themselves and the community.
We further believe that the policy and methods recommended
offer a means of protecting the rising generation of children
from the effects which follow a loss of a sense of personal
responsibility; and, that the adoption of these recommendations
will contribute ultimately to a substantial reduction in
Welfare costs.
Respectfully submitted,