State aid program for poor dies after 66 years

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri General Relief program, which provided meager monthly checks to thousands of low-income disabled people with nowhere else to turn, has died. It was 66 years old.

The General Relief program had been wounded by budget cuts earlier this year but briefly recovered when state lawmakers infused it with fresh money. The program suffered a fatal blow in June during the final moments of tense budget negotiations.

The program was pronounced dead Friday.

Born in 1937 during the Great Depression, the General Relief program provided monthly cash payments to as many as 57,000 people in its early years, helping both the disabled and parents providing for children.

But about the same time, the federal government adopted its own welfare program for low-income families with children. As times changed, so did the General Relief program.

More than 10,000 checks

In recent years, General Relief was available only to people unemployed because of temporary or permanent disabilities who did not qualify for other welfare programs. Many who received the cash payments were waiting to see whether they would be approved for permanent disability payments under the federal Social Security program.

In June, a total of 10,143 Missourians received checks of $70 each under the General Relief program. Enrollment figures for July were not available, but Luck said the program cost $9.3 million in its final year.

Some had expected the General Relief program to die sooner than it did. Pressed to cut money from its budget, the Department of Social Services recommended its elimination in the fiscal year that began in July 2002. Holden also recommended its death. But legislators found enough money to continue the program, which then provided people $80 a month.

While some lawmakers hold out hope the program might be resurrected next year, government programs, which don't easily die, are also difficult to bring back to life.

"If you kill it, then it's gone, and after a certain period of time, no one even remembers it existed," said Republican Sen. Charlie Shields of St. Joseph.