‘57% on Welfare Lack Basic Skills’

I couldn’t help thinking “I told you so” when I read that the lawmakers have finally discovered that 57% of welfare recipients are lacking in basic skills that would make them employable. And that figure only represents new applicants; if a survey were done on those people who have been on the rolls for years the percentages would be higher.

Assemblyman Art Agnos (D-San Francisco) is quoted as saying that “we are getting our first real insight into who these people really are.” If that is the case, they just haven’t been looking. Some 20 years ago any social worker in the field could have told him that “these people simply are not ready for the fundamentals of work. They cannot read, write or count well enough to hold a job.”

I was a social worker for Los Angeles County Social Services for more than 16 years before retiring in 1982. Until 1971, when the department split into two functions--social services and assistance payments--social workers were required to verify that the people on their caseloads met eligibility requirements for aid as well as assist recipients with problems and, hopefully, help them become self-supporting.

It was a discouraging job; no social worker, no matter how dedicated or well-intentioned could have repaired the damage that landed most of their clients on the rolls in the first place. What held true then holds true today: Most people are not on welfare because they want to be; they are there because they are not equipped with the basic skills to be self-supporting.

I am happy to learn that at long last our legislators are getting the message; let’s hope they listen to it and that the money being spent on costly studies to discover the obvious can be spent to correct the situation. But there are no instant cures--it will take several generations to reap any substantial results. The situation didn’t develop overnight and it won’t go away overnight. The hardest part will be waiting for the new roots of a new beginning to take hold. But it will be worth the wait, if politicians will stop their rhetoric and be realistic about solving a real problem. And if the voters who elect them don’t expect miracles.

LOIS THOMPSON

Palmdale