General Relief Checks to Continue Pending Rulings

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has agreed to continue to send monthly checks to general relief recipients whose eligibility has been challenged, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Orange County said Wednesday.

Penny Nagler, speaking for the society, said the Board of Supervisors had informed Legal Aid that the assistance would continue until a final decision to take the recipient off the roles is made.

Nagler said Orange County had previously not followed a 1970 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring that all welfare recipients continue to get aid while action to end their eligibility is pending.

Nagler said the new procedure by the county applies to about 1,800 people who now receive general relief. The general relief welfare recipients are persons who are not ineligible to get money from federal sources, she said.

Nagler said Legal Aid would ask that the county notify welfare recipients in writing that they are eligible to receive their money while a hearing for suspension or reduction of payments is pending.

A spokesman for the County Counsel’s office confirmed that the Board of Supervisors had informed Legal Aid of its decision, but no other comment was issued.