Welfare Agency Plans to Shift to One-Check System : Benefits: Semimonthly plan will end by January at the latest. County officials say the change will help cut costs and preserve jobs.

Early next year, Los Angeles County officials will begin issuing a single welfare check each month rather than two, a change that will affect 297,000 families.

The one-check system will save the county more than $1.1 million annually in mailing and other costs and allow its welfare agency to keep 33 employees it would otherwise lay off. But the plan has triggered complaints from some welfare rights activists.

“When I worked at a job that paid me once a month, it was much more difficult to manage,” said Neal Dudovitz, executive director of San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services. “People are going to run out of money the last week.”

“You’ll see more homelessness,” said Gwen Barrett, a social worker at the Inner City Law Center. “They’re creating a monster just to save a few pennies.”

County officials said they expect recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent Children to applaud the change. The idea was first raised last spring during monthly meetings with social workers and community groups, who reacted positively, they said.

“It’s a win-win situation for taxpayers and recipients,” who will be able to pay their rent at the beginning of each month instead of having to arrange to make two payments, said Jacob Aguilar, head of program planning for the county Department of Public Social Services.

Because it saves jobs in the already short-staffed welfare agency, the one-check system “will help clients, who will get better, faster service with more staff,” said Ann Jankowski, the agency’s budget chief.

The county plans to notify welfare recipients by mail a month before the change goes into effect, in either December or January. For a family of three, the switch means a monthly grant of $607 will arrive in one lump sum at the beginning of the month instead of in two staggered payments.

The projected savings of $1.1 million represents only 1.5.% of the $73.2 million the welfare agency spends in administrative costs. Officials also hope to save staff time devoted to unsnarling problems related to the loss or theft of about 2,000 mid-month checks, Aguilar said.

The county began exploring the idea after the state adopted regulations last January that for the first time in 25 years allow counties to issue one AFDC check a month instead of two.

So far, more than half of California’s 58 counties have switched or plan to switch, according to the state Department of Social Services.

The majority of counties nationwide use the one-check system, said Gary Ashcraft, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Checks are also issued once a month under other entitlement programs, including Social Security and General Relief.

County welfare agency director Eddy Tanaka approved the change after the plan was discussed at public meetings held monthly by welfare officials in each of the county’s 30 districts. He notified the Board of Supervisors in an Aug. 3 letter, just days after the budget hearings ended.