ECONOMIC

to help mothers to become self-supporting through services such as childcare for dependent children and rehabilitation assistance for the mother.The 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act provided a work incentivefor families by reducing the implicit tax on earnings and grantingassistance in preparing for work through appropriations for services suchas training, counseling, and child care (the Work Incentive Program orWIN).The AFDG program has also been liberalized to allow limited assistanceto needy families with an able-bodied father present. Since 1961 Stateshave had the option of providing aid to families with an unemployed father,and 22 States in fact do so.Growth of the ProgramDuring the 1950's the proportion of all families in the AFDC programwas roughly stable (Table 46). Since then, however, the proportion offamilies receiving aid has grown dramatically, benefits per recipient haveincreased, and total expenditures in the program have increased even moresharply.TABLE 46.—AFDC benefitsand families, selected years ,1950-72AFDC benefits iAFDC familiesYearTotalannualpayments torecipients(millions ofdollars)AverageDecemberpayment perrecipient 2Total 3(thousands)Percentof allfamilies'1950195519601965 . ..196719695566331,0551,8092,2803,565$2124273340456516208031,0541,2971,8751 71 51 8? ?? 63.7197119726,2037,02052532,9183,1235 65.91 Aid to families with dependent children (AFDC).2 Average of all States for December of each year.3 As of December of each year.4 AFDC families as of December, and total families as of March (except for April in 1955).Source: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (Social and Rehabilitation Service).Several factors seem to have contributed to the rapid rise in the numberof families receiving public assistance. One is the larger number of familieswith children and with a female as head, although this increase in turn maybe partly a consequence of the large rise in benefits. From 1950 to 1960such families increased by 829,000, while AFDC families increased by152,000. When benefits increased dramatically from 1960 to 1972, however,female-headed families with children increased by 1.5 million, butAFDC families increased by 2.3 million. A larger proportion of femaleheadedfamilies with children may have become eligible for AFDC, manyeligible families may have learned for the first time that they could join,or a large number no longer hesitated to receive welfare. The publicity169