Word: whitner
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...Barbara Whitner, 33, a petite Piedmont, Calif., housewife and former volunteer social worker, is not against welfare. Indeed, as she told a recent budget hearing of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, she wants to preserve public assistance for those who really need it. But in California, where a newspaper expose showed that dozens of state and county officials had contrived to get themselves on welfare, the poor are often left by the wayside. Mrs. Whitner was enraged...
...Alameda County alone, the welfare budget has risen $24 million in one year to $136,666,000. "End the legal cheating," Mrs. Whitner demanded of the supervisors. Just in case the point was missed, she presented examples from her own experience, including the names and addresses of offenders. "If you won't do this," she threatened, "I'll teach others how to cheat." The official response was a yawn. That was a mistake...
Dirty Dozen. Mrs. Whitner quickly established the "School for Welfare Cheaters." Its purpose was to prove that welfare peculators can and do prosper in California. Her appearance at the hearing drew offers of help from all over and Mrs. Whitner organized eleven fellow conspirators. Though posing as needy persons, they have incomes of at least $400 to more than $1,000 a month. Under Mrs. Whitner's guidance, the Dirty Dozen set about systematically bilking Bay Area welfare offices...
...Whitner was the first to take the field, dressed in old tennis shoes, a wig and glasses. Her story was that her husband had abandoned her and her five children. The social worker asked only that she produce birth certificates for her children. She was unable to do so and still the authorities granted her food stamps worth $126 a month. "The social worker seemed so sorry for me, I had to fight off being put on total welfare," Mrs. Whitner recalls...
...signed up for the whole program on the spot. Another presented herself at a local office and though not asked for identification, volunteered to present a rent receipt. Whereupon she left the office, only to return with a bogus receipt written on a scrap of paper bag by Mrs. Whitner...