HERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYBODY THAT WAITS FOR THE 1ST & THE 15TH!

The last time welfare recipients in New York saw an increase in their basic cash allowance, Derek Jeter was in high school, a subway token cost $1.15 and David N. Dinkins had just been sworn in as mayor. Nineteen years later, they will see another long-awaited increase beginning this month, bringing a subsidy for a typical family of three to $321 a month, from $291, city and state officials said.

For a family of four, the subsidy will rise to $413.70 a month, from $375.70.

The increase was a small line in Gov. David A. Paterson’s budget this year, but a hard-fought victory by advocates for the poor, who have long argued that the welfare subsidy was too low.

“It was way overdue,” said Mark Dunlea, the executive director of the Hunger Action Network of New York State, which lobbied for the increase. “Nineteen years is a very long time.”

According to the terms of the budget, the subsidy will also increase incrementally in 2010 and 2011.

On Thursday, the change was so new that many recipients had yet to realize that their checks were about to become a little bit bigger.

“What? No!” said Georgeanna Hicks, 54, as she was told of the news on her way out of the Pathmark supermarket in East Harlem. “It hasn’t gone up in years. That is great.”

Ms. Hicks, who has been on welfare for five years, said she was thrilled at the prospect of having an increase in her subsidy, however small. As a single person, she will receive $151.10, up from $137.10, beginning this month.

Ms. Hicks, who has diabetes, said she would like to find a job as a secretary, or perhaps go back to school and be trained as a dental assistant.

The extra money, Ms. Hicks said, would help her afford subway fare, which recently went up.

“I can go look for a job more often now,” she said. “I’ll do my laundry more often. I’ll spend it on things like toilet paper, lotion, dishwashing soap. I can’t really buy much of anything, but it’ll help me.”

Like many other low-income people, Ms. Hicks said she scraped by on a combination of food stamps, welfare, Medicaid and a small housing subsidy.

She also depends on her daughter, who pays for things like her cellphone bill.

But she said her daughter recently lost her job, and is struggling to keep up with her own expenses.

Several people interviewed on Thursday said they felt nickel-and-dimed by the growing cost of living, and especially by things like the higher subway fares, the rising cost of food, and even seemingly minuscule price increases at the laundry.

Ketny Jean-Francois, a single mother of a 6-year-old boy, said she was frustrated when she noticed several weeks ago that the cost of using a dryer at her laundromat had gone up: a quarter used to buy 10 minutes, but now it buys only eight.

“For other people it might be insignificant,” she said. “But if you’re counting every penny and every minute, it means something. It means something to me.”

One woman from the Bronx, who asked to be identified only as Kathy because she did not want her friends to know she was on welfare, said she expected to spend the extra subsidy — for her family of three, about a dollar a day — on household items that cannot be purchased with food stamps.

“I guess it’ll help a little bit,” she said, pausing near the door of the Pathmark. “I can’t afford to pay many of my bills.”

Louise Ellis, 57, had just finished her monthly shopping trip with her 15-year-old son, Dequan. She spent $167 on groceries, which was covered by food stamps.

She spends most of her spare cash on Dequan, who frequently needs new shoes and clothes. “Even on sale, they’re still expensive,” she said.

Ms. Jean-Francois, who lost her job as a home health aide last year, is a board member of Community Voices Heard, an advocacy organization composed mostly of people with low incomes, many of them on welfare. The group was part of the lobbying effort for the subsidy increase.

“It will improve things a little bit,” she said. “But it does feel insignificant. It feels symbolic.”