1967 DOCUMENTARY: “WELFARE OVER FATHERS” | The Welfare Revolt ©

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This documentary looks at the faces within the welfare rolls, and echoing them, finds defeat, degradation, and “an aura of illegitimacy” engendered by “cumbersome and paternalistic” rules. Welfare is treated as a “privilege” rather than as a “right” recipients feel. There is not enough money for a decent existence — each request for money to clothe a child is an act of self-abasement. Work is discouraged, since a woman can keep only a negligible share of her earnings while she remains on welfare. And, in the case of deserted or unmarried women with dependent children there is almost no chance of a decent relationship with a man, because the system permits that an apartment to be searched at any time of the day, and that she be deprived of her welfare check if a man (even the children’s father) is found on the premises. It is against this system that the clients’ group are directing their energies, banded together into the nationwide Welfare Rights Organization. And the film dramatizes the movement, which had its beginnings in a 250-mile march from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio, last June 30. This year, on the same date, the film follows an anniversary march by the members of the Rights organization in Cleveland, where demands are presented to the county welfare department. Much of the film takes place in Cleveland. Here, the conditions of families on ADC (Aid to Dependent Children) are depicted, and mothers describe how they raise large families on inadequate checks. When the welfare check arrives late, one mother explains, there is often no food. When children need clothing, she must “get down on hands and knees” and ask for money from the welfare department. The difficulty of welfare is compounded by such human insults as food stamps, the film notes. Since woman on welfare have their needs categorized, they must often improvise — such as Cleveland women have done in organizing a soap cooperative. At school, welfare children face “constant and subtle discrimination.” Their free lunches set them out at “cases.” They lack money to engage in regular school activities. They must seek outlets when they can find them cheaply – on the streets, in dancing, in sex. And each attempt to “break out of the welfare trap” leads back to the same place. A girl named Brenda, who became pregnant shortly after high school, explains that it is an economic necessity for her to remain single so that she can be a candidate for the welfare rolls until her boyfriend has become well established in a job. A widower with a young family, “one of the worthy poor,” is then seen as he engages in computer training and waits on his children at home. Later, in a phone call to the welfare department, he makes an itemized plea for additional help. The paradox of his situation is that welfare funds can readily provide a homemaker for this children’s care, but that their basic clothing needs are more difficult to obtain