Problem: The prevailing system for delivering welfare benefits has inefficiencies and helps increase the stigma of welfare. The delivery of checks all at the same time leads some areas to have long lines to cash checks, inconveniencing banks and stores. This also complicates the job of administrators when checks are missing. Proposed Solution: Ramsay County, MN has decided to do away with the actual welfare checks. Instead, with the cooperation of a computer firm, welfare benefits are electronically credited to accounts belonging to the recipients. The clients are given a card which can then be used to withdraw the benefit money from any automatic teller machine in the area. Evaluation: The program has been a success. The system is more efficient, reliable, and convenient than the traditional system of checks. In addition, recipients no longer tend to take the entire benefit in cash all at once. Because the clients use the regular network of ATMs, the stigma of the traditional welfare check cashing line has been eliminated. Contact: Margaret Philben, Project Manager, 160 East Kellogg Boulevard, Saint Paul, MN 55101. Citation: "Innovations in State and Local Government 1990." New York: The Ford Foundation, 1990. pp 18-19. Keywords: welfare public assistance