Applying for public assistance can be a difficult, long, and humiliating process. Administrative practices can prevent applicants from receiving their lawful benefits from agencies handling Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). To examine these problems, Project Fair Play recruited graduate social work and law students as advocates for AFDC recipients; and gathered study data using a Case Report Form for each family seeking assistance in resolving an AFDC problem. Agency and legal services questionnaires were developed for face-to-face or telephone interviews with social, legal, and human services agency staff, as well as a Welfare Client Survey for people in local welfare department waiting rooms. Analyses of the data collected showed nine major categories of findings including: (1) welfare system management problems; (2) barriers to entering the welfare system; (3) communication problems; (4) welfare system inefficiency; (5) welfare system insensitivity; (6) client characteristics; (7) child support problems; (8) detection of fraud problems; and (9) emergency service problems. Section 2 is a detailed discussion of each of the findings. A reference list and two appendices providing information on Project Fair Play student participants, clients and the AFDC population are also included. (PAS)