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Show Tax Study Group Makes Report On Public Assistance Expenditures Expenditures for public assistance in Utah have continued to mount each year, according to a research report on Trends in Utah Public Welfare released to- was $42.71, compared to $50.45 for January, 1949. The average payment pay-ment to aid-to-dependent children dropped from $108.16 in January to $94 in July. A change in assistance assis-tance payments standards effective effect-ive in September, 1949, will increase in-crease the average payment to old-age recipients by approximately approximate-ly $2.50. The Utah Foundation report states that the lien law has saved sav-ed approximately 1 14 million dol-ars dol-ars per year in old-age assistance. While the principal purpose of the lien law is to discourage the receiving re-ceiving of public welfare aid by those who are able to care for themselves, or whose children can care for them, -some financial return re-turn for the State is secured from recoveries made at the time of the death of old-age recipients who own property. Recoveries from the lien law for March, April, May and June of 1949 averaged $4,500 per month. The amount of recovery recov-ery will increase when the lien law has been longer in operation. In no case thus far has it been necessary for the State Welfare Department to acquire or sell property pro-perty of old-age assistance recipients recip-ients after their death to satisfy the lien. In all cases to date, heirs have either paid or have arranged to pay the amount of the lien in order to retain. the property, the Utah Foundation reports. day by Utah Foundation, the pri- vate non-profit tax study agency. Total public assistance expenditure expendit-ure for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1949, was $12,740,103 compared with $11,513,440 for fiscal 1948. This represents an increase of 11 per cent over the previous year. Since 1940, public assistance outlay out-lay has increased 78 percent. State funds provided $7.8 million in 1949 Federal aid provided $4.8 million. mil-lion. Although the Utah Foundation report notes that the number of welfare cases is now increasing, the number of persons on welfare rolls in July, 1949 was only half the number in April, 1941, when 54,038 Utah residents, nearly one-tenth one-tenth of the population of .the State, were receiving pubile welfare wel-fare assistance. Because average payments were much lower, total i welfare expenditures in Utah were $8,090,025 for 1941 compared with ! $12,740,103 for 1949 when there were half as many welfare recipients. recip-ients. If the number of persons on welfare rolls were to increase again to the 1941 level, and payments pay-ments were maintained at the 1949 level, Utah's public welfare expenditures ex-penditures would mount to $25,-000,000 $25,-000,000 per year, more than three times the amount actually spent in 1941, Foundation analysts indicate. indi-cate. The 1949 Utah Legislature, in view of the unprecedented demand for funds for education and building build-ing requirements, set the public assistance appropriation for the current biennium ending June 30, 1951 at $13,960,000. This was $5,-790,000 $5,-790,000 less than the Public Welfare Wel-fare Department requested, and $949,000 less than the total welfare, wel-fare, appropriation for the previous biennium. To keep within their appropriation appropria-tion the Welfare Commission had the choice of making a flat "across the board" cut reducing all grants, or to tighten up administration of assistance payments and revise the standards of granting aid to secure a more equitable distribution distribu-tion of welfare funds. The Public Welfare Commission prepared a revised budget for determining de-termining need that was made effective ef-fective in May. In April, 1949, two families were on the public assistance roll although al-though two of the children in each family were each receiving a monthly mon-thly vagebf $290 or a total of $580 a month per family. Under the existing standards effective in April, these two children were required re-quired to contribute only $25 each per month to support of their family, fam-ily, and eacli family was given a substantial welfare grant. Under the modified standards made effective ef-fective in May, these families wern removed from the assistance roll. In May, 1949, the departmental maximum grant for a recipient was, for the first time since the adoption of statutory maximums in 1947, reduced below the Legislative Legis-lative maximum. Previous to this time the philosophy of the Welfare Department was to make assistance assist-ance payments on the basis that funds should be made available to provide every recipient with an income in-come equal to the maximum grant fixed by the Legislature. Following Follow-ing clarification of the Legislative Legisla-tive intent and a change in administrative ad-ministrative personnel, it would appear that the policy of the Commission Com-mission is that payments should be adjusted to meet the requirements require-ments of those most in need to the extent which appropriated funds will permit. The 1949 Legislature amended the Public Assistance Act intending intend-ing to provide a means whereby the Public Welfare Commission might force payment of alimony decreed by the court. If all alimony awarded by the courts to families now on welfare rolls were paid, a saving of nearly one-third million mil-lion dollars per year in public assistance as-sistance would result. Under the new standards for determining de-termining need, the total public assistance payments were reduced from $1,093,414 in April to $936,-000 $936,-000 in May and $929,735 in June. This represents a total reduction of approximately $300,000 for the months of May and June. However, How-ever, the modified standards reduced re-duced the total assistance payments pay-ments more than was necessary to stay within the funds available and the Department ended the biennium bi-ennium with a balance of approximately approx-imately $153,000. The balance of $153,000 plus Federal matching money was distributed dis-tributed by the Commission to recipients re-cipients whose grants had been cut in May and June. The -total additional addi-tional payment was $258,326. The average assistance payment for old-age recipients in July, 1949, |