ABSTRACT
THE FUNCTION of a particular social welfare agency seemingly may have no relationship to services connected with problems of money, yet there are few agencies that are not exposed in one fashion or another to money problems of greater or lesser complexity in the lives of those they serve. For example, nine-year-old Jimmy dropped out of the “Wolverines” in which he had been an active participant almost since the probation officer had introduced him to the group services agency and he had agreed to “try out” the experience with peers who, like Jimmy, were on probation. The group worker and the probation officer discovered that Jimmy was known to the other Wolverines as a “cheapskate,” and that this and more forceful derisive names followed Jimmy’s failure to put into the kitty the weekly quarter the members had agreed on. Jimmy’s 325father, in his effort to control Jimmy’s behavior, has denied the boy any money; Jimmy has been so closely watched that he has had no recent opportunities to pilfer the amount required for the weekly tithe and has been unable to face the contempt of his fellow Wolverines over his failure to utilize their habitual method for providing themselves with what they think they require.
