Recent statewide budget cuts to welfare-related services could affect Allenstown hard.

The cuts include funding for funeral expenses for those supported by the Aid to the Totally and Permanently Disabled program; a 50 percent cut in an emergency assistance program that typically pays for emergency rent or utility bills for people supported by the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program; and the elimination of reimbursement funds to municipalities for supporting people while they wait for state assistance.

There is also a new waiting list for child care financial assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The cuts couldn’t have come at a worse time for Allenstown, where the number of people seeking welfare assistance from Town Hall has risen dramatically since last year. Most are first-time applicants, the town welfare director said.

“We’ve had three times as many applicants in October 2009 than we did in October 2008,” said Diane O’Callaghan, the welfare director.

Residents can seek welfare from the town on a monthly basis to help with basic needs, such as food, utilities and medicine.

Two years ago, when O’Callaghan began working as the welfare director, she said most of the applicants were young single mothers. That has changed in a big way. She said 72 percent of people who applied for welfare in 2009 were first-time applicants.

“The change in clientele is dramatic,” O’Callaghan said. “Most of them are families and what is commonly referred to as the working poor.” Home foreclosures, job lay-offs and cuts in work hours have forced families to seek welfare.

“A lot of times one or both parents have lost their job or have had their hours cut to the point that it’s like a job loss,” she said. “They can’t apply for unemployment and they’re caught in the middle.”

O’Callaghan said many of the applicants have no idea what programs are available and she often walks them through the process.

There are currently no demographics on the people who apply for welfare, but O’Callaghan said the New Hampshire Welfare Association is compiling a computer database to start keeping track in the near future.