Source of Funds Expended for Public Assistance Payments, 1957–58

Public assistance payments for needy persons in the United States amounted to $31/4 billion in the fiscal year 1957-58. This total was $280 million, or more than 9 percent, higher than payments in the preceding year. Expenditures for assistance payments went up in each of the five assistance programs. The largest increases took place in general assistance (22.6 percent) and aid to dependent children (16.4 percent), the programs most sensitive to changes in economic conditions. The relatively sharp rise in payments to the disabled-12.4 percent-resulted largely from the initiation of new programs for aid to the permanently and totally disabled in California and Texas and the expansion of programs in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Amounts spent for aid to the blind and old-age assistance rose 5.9 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.