Working While on Welfare

For the past three months, computers in Washington, D.C., have been comparing a list of 1.8 million civilians on the federal payroll with another list of welfare recipients in 21 states. So far, Project Match has come up with 26,334 "hits" --names that appear on both lists.

A pilot program last summer, involving the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's 6,000 Washington employees, produced 216 raw hits. Of these, 77 were found to be totally ineligible for welfare, 39 more were receiving excessive payments, and the remaining 100 were judged fully eligible. Based on those figures, HEW expects to find in the current search 10,000 to 12,000 Government workers who are chiseling the welfare system out of from $10 million to $24 million annually. Chiselers face possible prosecution, having to repay illegal benefits, and loss of their jobs.

Civil libertarians, however, want to end the program. Complains John Shattuck, Washington director of the American Civil Liberties Union: "Project Match exemplifies precisely the kind of manipulation of personal data that people most fear." Adds David Linowes, chairman of the Privacy Protection Study Commission: "People shouldn't be treated as so many pieces of raw data being shunted about."

On two occasions civil libertarians have beaten down proposals for national computerized data banks (on tax and census information). Each time they successfully invoked fears of 1984-style invasion of privacy by electronic technology. "Public opinion is aroused when a central computer is proposed," says A.C.L.U. Privacy Project Director Trudy Hayden. "But this time, they're starting small, matching two little computer lists, affecting only the poor and the weak."

HEW officials insist the program is vital to maintain public confidence in the welfare system's integrity. Promises HEW Secretary Joseph Califano: "We'll do this with delicacy and care," severely limiting access to names of individuals on welfare. HEW Deputy Inspector General Charles Ruff, a former Watergate special prosecutor, acknowledges that search of personnel files can constitute a breach of individual privacy. But, asks Ruff, "is it an unreasonable invasion of privacy? We say that it is not." HEW plans to expand Match to include all federal employees and to help states start their own mini-Match. Under pressure from civil libertarians, Califano has shelved, at least temporarily, a plan to enlist the help of private corporations in searching out welfare recipients on their payrolls.*

Having won that round, the A.C.L.U. is not pushing hard for congressional intervention. Explains an official: "It's politically unrealistic to expect to derail Project Match." Another problem is resources. Last week A.C.L.U. lawyers won another decision in the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of American Nazi Party members who want to parade in the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie. The A.C.L.U.'s successful defense has contributed to a 15% decline in both its membership and donations nationwide.

* Michigan has already started turning over public assistance lists to the state's five major private employers, including the Big Three automakers, in its search for welfare cheats.

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