Talk:General Assistance

According to http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r986/r986-400.htm#T2, Utah no longer supplies General Assistance to the able bodied (i.e. non-handicapped).

Entitlement?

Are general assistance programs always entitlements, or do some states fund them on a discretionary basis? Boris B (talk) 03:12, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Not sure. In California our general assistance law is a confusing mess. Welfare and Institutions Code Section 17000 is as follows: "Every county and every city and county shall relieve and support all incompetent, poor, indigent persons, and those incapacitated by age, disease, or accident, lawfully resident therein, when such persons are not supported and relieved by their relatives or friends, by their own means, or by state hospitals or other state or private institutions." But then if you read the sections immediately following that, it's clear that the Legislature has given the counties the discretion to specify a very low level of aid for indigent residents, since California had too many hippies flocking into the state in the 1960s and living off the public dole. --Coolcaesar (talk) 06:27, 3 January 2010 (UTC)