The wheeler vs Montgemery was a popular court case that was heard before the U.S Supreme Court in 1970. Wheeler had been in the lower courts suing for deprivation of her welfare by the San Francisco department of social services. Despite trying to get back her proceeds from the social department, there was an order to withhold her proceeding pending her complaints and the resultant investigation.
A three judge bench in the California district court ruled that the law was not breached by stopping to give Wheeler her welfare proceeds; therefore she was denied the welfare benefits. The case was brought to the Supreme Court and there was a controversy in the question as to whether “due process’ should allow termination of regularly recurring welfare payments without adequate notice and without factual questions, concerning the withholding the proceeds, being answered. In this essay we look at the Wheeler versus Montgomery case in an attempt to answer whether only welfare benefits for people in extreme circumstances (impoverished families, elderly poor) are entitled to pre-termination hearing.
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I am of the opinion that the termination of the welfare benefits should have an adequate notice and explanation before the proceeds are stopped. Failing to give an adequate notice would be risky for this population; it is mostly composed of impoverished families and elderly poor. Considering they have limited sources of income stopping the welfare proceeds without prior notice and explanation might be detrimental to their social, economic, health among other aspects of their lives. Therefore I believe these beneficiaries are entitled to a pretrial termination hearing.
The same opinion was given by the Supreme Court in which the majority opinion claimed that the California welfare termination regulation was a breach of law. The court observed that the ‘Due Process Clause’ was not put into consideration. The recipient should have been given an evidential hearing to their opinion should have been heard before terminating the welfare benefits. On these grounds the Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s ruling (Wheeler v. Montgomery n.d.).
Most of the public benefits require similar process. Some of the popular benefits for the elderly and the poor families include social security, supplemental nutrition assistance, telephone assistance lifeline programs. Medicaid, Medicare and elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage are other types of public benefits that are meant to improve health conditions and its access for the poor and the elderly. Terminating such benefits would be detrimental for the elderly population; therefore a good explanation and adequate notice should be given if there is possible opportunity of withholding the benefits (Ehrenberg, & Smith, 2016).
References
Ehrenberg, R. G., & Smith, R. S. (2016). Modern labor economics: Theory and public policy . Routledge.
Wheeler v. Montgomery. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved September 16, 2017, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1969/14
