Public Assistance Sociology

Structural Functionalism aims to understand society in an objective way. It views society as an entity that is “objectively real”. It emphasizes the unity of society, and how individuals perform roles and how these roles are vital in meeting the needs of the collective whole. For instance, because every society has stratification, stratification must have certain functions and these functions can contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole. Furthermore, structural

Structural functionalism is based on the thought that society operates with the expectation of everyone serves a purpose. In order to operate effectively, each individual has a function that provides a role that others are dependent on. The responsibility of society is shared by the involvement of all institutions. Poverty in society is view by functionalists as purposeful. It provides society with jobs as social service providers. The social service providers are dependent on various institutions to provide the necessary sufficiency to sustain their role in society. This revolving dependence is crucial to structural functionalism.

Welfare has been an arguable topic throughout United States history (“Brief”). Some people agree with it and others do not like it at all. Welfare did not exist until the 1930s during The Great Depression (“Brief”). With millions of people unemployed, Franklin D. Roosevelt developed the welfare system to help these people during the Great Depression (“Brief”). After the Great Depression was over,, the government came up with new programs to help assist the welfare program and help more people in poverty (“Brief”). Some of those programs were Medicaid, public housing, food stamps, and Supplemental Security programs (“Brief”). Theses programs helped and hurt the country at the same time (“Brief”). By having these programs, many people would not look for jobs because they knew they were better off living on welfare (“Brief”).

Changes within the welfare system as a result of policy shifts and by new thinking, more generally in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have had many methods, but the one that seemed most important, was that welfare recipients were required to do much more to justify their income support payments than before. The foundation of this new idea is that income support programs should allow individuals to maximise their participation in work. Due to the general shift in welfare administration, the number of activity test requirements an individual in Australia must meet in order to receive unemployment benefits, has expanded significantly since the early 1990s. This complex, overly bureaucratic process means that disadvantaged individuals cannot access the income support payments they require.

U.S. Welfare started as a federally funded program in the 1930’s during the Great Depression to help aid those families and individuals who had little to no income. The Federal Government was in charge of the U.S. welfare system for sixty years, until the 1990’s when there was an uproar of Americans who were unsatisfied with the way the Federal Government was handling those who were receiving government aid. Many Americans believed that these individuals were abusing the welfare program by “not applying for jobs, having more children just to get more aid, and staying unmarried so as to qualify for benefits.” (Welfareinfo, 2016) In 1996, the states were handed control of the welfare system due to the passed reform law signed by President Bill Clinton.

When you are standing in the checkout line at your local grocery store do you ever think about how the person in front of you is paying for their groceries? Most citizens do not take a second thought at other peoples payment methods if it means they can get out of the store swiftly as possible. In the United States on average about 21.3 percent of Americans receive welfare assistance that is approximately 52.2 million people. Welfare assistance is a program that provides money through a variety of programs consisting of: food stamps, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Americans suffer income complications everyday trying to make it by, but looking

Welfare in the United States has its roots in FDR’s Great Depression era policies of the New Deal. As part of the Social Security Act, cash transfers were made from the Federal Government to families with children and little-to-no income. In 1996 the system of welfare in the United States was drastically transformed under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). One of the biggest changes that came about from this reform was how welfare was paid out. Instead of being a federal program, the administration of welfare payments was shifted to the states and funded through block grants.

The US welfare system started back in the 1930’s when the great depression was going on. In 2012 more than 30 percent of households headed by an immigrant. The people who are mainly on welfare are the people who are sick and disabled and have little income, a big family or who come from out of the country. The government provides each state with their own welfare programs called temporary assistance for needy families (TANF). There are many different types of welfare programs in the US like, heath care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing assistance. All of these types of welfare are controlled by the government and the state in some kind of way.

Welfare began in the 1930s during the great depression. The government created the welfare program to give to the large numbers of families and who had little or no income. A person can get on welfare depending on a numerous of factors. Like income, size of family and crisis situations such as: medical emergencies, pregnancy, homelessness or unemployment. It also offers job training according to "US Welfare System - Help for US Citizens." some states even began to experiment with programs that required welfare recipients to find work within a specified period of time, after which welfare benefits would cease. When applying for welfare you are assigned a case worker that will gather all the necessary information to determine the amount and type of benefits that an individual can get. The type of welfare available varies from state to state. In 1996 the federal government gave control back to the states by passing a reform law signed by President

Welfare has been a safety net for many Americans, when the alternative for them is going without food and shelter. Over the years, the government has provided income for the unemployed, food assistance for the hungry, and health care for the poor. The federal government in the nineteenth century started to provide minimal benefits for the poor. During the twentieth century the United States federal government established a more substantial welfare system to help Americans when they most needed it. In 1996, welfare reform occurred under President Bill Clinton and it significantly changed the structure of welfare. Social Security has gone through significant change from FDR’s signing of the program into law to President George W. Bush’s

United States Government Welfare began in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt thought of this system as an aid for low-income families whose men were off to war, or injured while at war. The welfare system proved to be beneficial early on by giving families temporary aid, just enough to help them accommodate their family’s needs. Fast forward almost 90 years, and it has become apparent that this one once helpful system, has become flawed. Welfare itself and the ideologies it stands on, contains decent fundamentals; furthermore, this system of aid needs only to be reformed to better meet the needs of today’s society.

Structural functionalism is a macro level approach to study sociology (Browning, 2015). Structural functionalists believe social consensus is what holds society together; social consensus being a condition in which most members of the society agree on what would be good for everyone. Structural functionalists view society as a web of social structures, each structure being functional to fulfill it’s own needs, but dependent on all other structures for survival (Vago, 2012).

Welfare was created as an amendment to the social security act of 1935 in 1939. Before this many things were being implemented already as a form of welfare. Such as Medicaid, food stamps, and SSI (Supplement Security Income). During this time was the great depression which extremely affected the American economy, causing thousands of people to become unemployed. These established many of the programs that built the way welfare is shaped today such as the AFDC (Aid to Families with Independent Children). Due to these being created there had to organizations and agencies to supervise

Structural Functionalism is “A major sociological perspective that views society as an interdependent system of parts (structures) and purposes (functions) that work together to make a society operate (Larkin, 2015)”. In order for a society to work all parts of the same society must work together. In structural functionalism society nearly depends on one another to stay afloat. If Something changes it can causes a disruption in society and begins to make things become unbalanced. Functionalism focuses on many groups that make up society, for example Government, Judiciary, and religion are some of the key groups that benefits in society strengthening their social relationships and the very world humans live in.