Record-Keeping and the Intake Process in a Public Welfare Agency

Abstract

This chapter examines the way in which one welfare agency is organized to accomplish this task. The Lakeside Office, as it will be called, is one of several district offices of a Bureau of Public Assistance located in a metropolitan county of a large western state. The setting is characterized, first, by the routine collection, production, and use of records; and second, by the way in which the factuality, objectivity, and impersonality of the information contained in those records is an everyday, practical concern, and an everyday, practical accomplishment. The Social Security Act, enacted August 14, 1935, with subsequent amendments, is the legislative basis and chief impetus of the present public assistance programs operated by state, territorial, and commonwealth jurisdictions. The Social Security Act specifies certain general conditions for federal grants-in-aid to the states. The states determine definitions of need, eligibility, and amount of assistance, usually by means of a Welfare Code enacted by the legislature.

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