The Future Direction of Income Transfer Programs

Benefit payments to individuals total $165.5 billion in Fiscal Year 1976 federal outlays. This represents 44 per cent of all federal outlays, compared to 19 per cent in fiscal year 1956. These benefit payments are for social security, federal employee benefits, veterans benefits, public assistance, unemployment insurance, railroad retirement, food and nutrition, health care, and housing programs. If these programs are evaluated on the basis of their efficiency, the conclusion is that they are not carried out at minimal cost. Many in fact are clearly uncontrollable. If these programs are evaluated on the basis of their effectiveness, the conclusion is that they are not achieving their objectives. Many in fact do not have clearly defined goals. In 1953 when HEW was founded, its spending amounted to less than 34 for every $1 of federal outlays. The HEW empire now accounts for more than one-third of the total U. S. budget. At the past decade's rate of increase, the Department will be paying out more than $500 billion a year by the year 1985. Every seventh person in the United States receives a monthly check directly from some HEW agency. It dispenses funds through 300 major programs and thousands of smaller ones. And we see the residual effect: in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program, a 1975 study found that in Chicago and Detroit, one of every five children is on welfare. In New York and Newark, the figure was one in four. In St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston, and Washington, it was one in three. Big as HEW is, though, it does not have a monopoly on federal income transfer programs. The Department of Agriculture administers one of the biggest of them all-food stamps-a program which began in 1964 with $35 million and grew to $6.3 billion in just 11 years. Administrative and Conceptual Problems

Business · Transfer (computing · Computer Science · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality