The Administration of Welfare Budgets: The Views of AFDC Recipients

Since income-maintenance is widely conceded to be the heart of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, much attention has focused on the administration of the budget. How is the budget for a family established, and how may it be modified? How often is it changed and under what circumstances? How much caseworker-client interaction is there in the area of budget, and how much friction over the allocation and expenditure of funds? Basing their conclusions on survey data collected from Wisconsin AFDC recipients in six counties, the authors find that budget levels do not fluctuate much, and there is little caseworker intervention in client spending. On the other hand, clients take little advantage of the flexible features for supplementing their budgets, such as Special Needs items, and attempt to get by on their basic monthly checks. If the budget is not a subject of controversy between caseworker and client, or of control over the client by the caseworker, it is due in large part to the lack of discussion between them. Despite paper provisions for extra needs and elaborate provisions for treating earned income of family members, most women operate on budgets that are static, unresponsive, and, at best, minimal.