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1986 Study of Characteristics of General Assistance - Unemployable Recipients: Length of Assistance Use

Executive Summary

This report uses payment history data to measure the length of time that recipients use the General Assistance­Unemployable (GA-U) program. The GA-U program provides financial assistance and medical treatment to people with medically verifiable incapacities lasting at least 60 days which prevent employment.

Length of GA-U use was measured from two perspectives. Length of use between January 1980 and September 1986 was examined for a sample of GA-U recipients on the July 1986 Warrant Roll. Length of use was also examined for cases on the January 1984 Warrant Roll which had opened within the previous six weeks. This provides both retrospective and prospective looks at length of assistance use.

The look at past use by GA-U users in July 1986 produced the following findings:

• Those on the July 1986 Warrant Roll used GA-U for an average of 15.8 months during an average of 2.1 separate episodes. Breaks between episodes were usually short. Only 24 percent lasted as long as six months, and over half lasted less than one month.

• Recipients with above average GA-U use included the mentally ill {19.9 months), those aged 5.0 to 59 years (19.9 months) and 40 to 49 years (17.5 months), women (16.8 months) and the mentally retar­ded (16.2 months).

• Recipients with below average GA-U use included those aged 20 to 29 years {13.6 months) and over 59 years of age (13.7 months), those with substance abuse incapacities (15.1 months), those with physical incapacities (15.2 months), and men (15.3 months).

• Seventeen percent of the women using GA-U had used Aid to Families with Dependent Children previously, as opposed to only three percent of the men.

Comparisons between GA-U users in July 1986 and June 1982 showed that:

• Length of GA-U use has dropped slightly since 1982 -­from 16.5 months to 15.8 months. This resulted from an increase in the number of cases with substance abuse incapacities., which have ;below average lengths of use,

• Length of GA-1J use by recipients with substance abuse incapacities increased by 29 percent between 1982 and 1986 but remained essentially unchanged for recipients with other incapacities.

GA-U recipients from the January 1964 Warrant Roll whose cases opened in .late 1983 show the length of GA-U use by.. recipients 'with 34 to 35 months of potential follow-up. Findings on subsequent GA-U use by this group can be used to simulate the impact of placing time limits on GA-U use. Findings include:

• Recipients who entered the 'GA-U program in 1983 used the program for an average of 12.4 months. Almost 40 percent would be affected by a 12 month limit' on participation.

• The mentally ill and .mentally retarded used GA-U the. longest. Fifty-eight percent of the mentally retarded and 51 percent of the mentally ill would be affected by a 12 month duration limit, as opposed to 36 percent of those with physical or substance abuse incapacities

• Eighteen percent of the cases opened in late 1983 entered the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for aged or disabled adults .in 32 months following January 1984. However, almost 55 percent of these recipient also used GA-U for more than 12 months and would be affected by a 12 month duration limit.

Comparisons of cases opened at six-month intervals revealed the following changes in the characteristics of GA-U case openings:

• The percent of new GA-U cases involving substance abuse as the primary. incapacity has increased from one-third at the end of 1983 to close to 40 percent in mid-1986.

• Persons with substance abuse as a primary incapa­city made up less than 26 percent of the July 1986 GA-U caseload because of their shorter than average length of assistance use.

• The percent of GA-U openings involving recent in-migrants to Washington State has increased since 1983. Six percent of the cases opened during the last six weeks of 1983 involved recipients who had been in Washington for three months or less. By mid-1986 this figure had increased to 13 percent.

Modified: Friday May 19 2006

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