HUNTER COLLEGE, May 10-- Many of the women on welfare, even some who we profiled in Campus Welfare Moms, are victims of domestic violence. A recent survey shows that between as many as 30 percent of battered women had lost their jobs, in part due to domestic violence. In addition, from 50 percent to 60 percent of welfare recipients are, or have been, victims of domestic violence as adults, according to the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Domestic violence is defined as: a learned pattern of behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other person. The partners may be married or not married, gay or lesbian, living together, separated or dating.

Domestic violence victims applying for governmental aid for themselves and their children may apply for a waiver, that is, they may ask their welfare department liaisons to remove their names from the Workfare assignment list. Also, a waiver may exempt them from the five-year lifetime limit for receiving benefits.

The right to a waiver is reviewed on an on-going basis by the welfare department and is available only to those who a caseworker believes is endangered by going to work or the time limits.

None of the women interviewed as part of this series reported applying for this status. That is not surprising, say experts, because the exception is rarely sought and even more rarely granted.

Initial reports in states now implementing the waiver indicate that few waivers are actually given--on average, most states that keep track are reporting about eight waivers are given each month.

This may be in part due to the fact that the impact of domestic violence on women's ability to work is often minimized. In fact, New Jersey courts recently denied unemployment compensation to a victim who sought benefits after she was fired for taking too many days off work to recover from a beating.