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Show Utah Lien Law Saves Millions Annually Says Utah Foundation A comparison of public aid in L'tah with that of other states shows Utah to be providing higher high-er than average grants to its public assistance recipients despite des-pite lower than average financial resources. This analyisis of public pub-lic assistance trends was made by Utah Foundation, the private, non-profit tax researcch organization. organi-zation. I According to th foundation report, Utah has followed a policy poli-cy in recent years of providing public assistance only to those persons who are genuinely in need. This policy not only has safeguarded public assistance funds for those who are most in need but has permitted cost-of-living increases to persons who are legistimately dependent upon public welfare. Major factors in limiting public assistance to persons who are most in need, the report states, have been the lien law and property prop-erty restrictions for eligibility imposed im-posed by the Utah Legislature in 1917 and 1918. together with vigorous vig-orous administrative" policy in verifying need. The Utah Foundation study reveals re-veals that the number of old-age assistance cases in Utah has declined de-clined by nearly 2r,' since the adoption of the lien law and property restrictions in 1947. On the other hand, the number of old-age assistnee cases during the same period increased by nearly 14 throughout the nation, na-tion, by 17 in the Mountain States, and by 34 in those states not having i lien. law. Utah's lien law was endorsed by a three to two vote of the people at the 1952 general election. Utah Foundation estimates that the state would be spending spend-ing between $3.5 million and $5.3 million a year more for old-age assistance if Utah had followed the trends of these other states and maintained the present level of assistance payments. |
