Social Welfare Law Commons^™

Welfare Law In California, Peter E. Sitkin

Cal Law Trends and Developments

In California, over 1,500,000 people are dependent on public assistance for all or part of their means of subsistence. To provide aid to these individuals, a large and complex bureaucracy has developed over the years that expends more than a billion dollars a year, and is governed by an evergrowing set of federal, state, and local rules and regulations. Notwithstanding the size of the bureaucracy and the complexity of the laws governing the system, until recently there had been few instances of judicial review of welfare practices or laws. With a few exceptions,4 the court decisions relating to welfare prior …