Social Welfare Research Paper

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”).

As of January 1, 2014, roughly 4.1% of Americans are welfare, which is not what the system was designed to do (Department of Commerce). Welfare was originally created in the 1930’s during the Great Depression in order to aid to citizens with little to no income (welfareinfo.org). It was a response to the great number of people without jobs and who desperately needed assistance with money and basic needs such as food and shelter (welfareinfo.org). For the next 61 years the United States government would hold control of the welfare system (welfareinfo.org). According to the Department of Commerce, 46,700,000 Americans are on food stamps (Department of Commerce). The Department of Commerce divided welfare recipients into categories of race finding that, 39.8% of welfare holders are African-American (Department of Commerce).

Welfare started as a temporary response to the economic crash in the 1930s. Its primary goal was to provide cushioning to the families who lost the ability to be self-sufficient during the Great Depression. Yet, as America slowly rose back to becoming prosperous and wealthy, a significant chunk of America's population stayed below in the transitioning social system. The welfare system started to become counterproductive to the government so that, in the 1990s, Clinton hastily came up with legislation to end welfare, more famously known as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. This road that Clinton led ended in a downfall as more people than ever before are now dependent on the federal government for food, housing, and income. Our current welfare reform may need another reform before welfare can truly end.

The welfare system first came into action during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployed citizens needed federal assistance to escape the reality of severe poverty. The welfare system supplies families with services such as: food stamps, medicaid, and housing among others. The welfare system has played a vital role in the US, in controlling the amount of poverty to a certain level. Sadly, the system has been abused and taken for granted by citizens across the country. The welfare system was previously controlled by the federal government until 1996; the federal government handed over the responsibility to the states in hope of reducing welfare abuse. However, this change has not prevented folks from scamming the system. The

Thousands of people are signed up to receive welfare in America, this program is designed to aid poor and needy families. However, it has become some people’s way of earning an income. Several argue against and say that welfare is not destroying our country and creating a dependent people who have learned to abuse certain privileges that come with living in this nation.

When most people think of the average welfare recipient they most likely imagine someone who is a slacker; unambitious and one who is not a hard worker, someone who lazes around waiting until their welfare check comes in so that they can spend it all on whatever frivolous thing they want, and wait until the next check arrives. Sometimes people think of a mother and her children in a poor neighborhood, who wants more money to spend on expensive clothes and electronics, so she gets her welfare checks and buys the expensive yet unnecessary items without using the money to get out of a bad financial situation, contented to live this way without working towards anything better. Nobody would be in support of a system that gives undeserving people their own tax money. However, that is not what welfare looks like. Welfare looks like overworked parents who are doing the best they can, but still don’t have enough to put a meal on the table. Welfare looks like people afraid to lose their homes and willing to do almost anything to just keep living. Welfare looks like the mentally disabled, who despite trying their hardest, need more help. This is what welfare looks like; people in need who strive to live a better life. Welfare helps families in need not only by giving them money but by aiding them with every aspect of their lives such as food, shelter, and more to improve the quality of their life.

Welfare is a public assistance program that is designed to help families who do not have enough money to support themselves. Welfare was developed to improve the quality of life and living standards for the poor and underprivileged. This program started because of the hardships people faced during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1935, public assistance for the poor became the government’s responsibility. The money comes from the taxes that are deducted from the working class. Testing welfare recipients for drug abuse stereotypes the poor, is unconstitutional, and has become a big burden.

Welfare is a system that was put into place to give financial help to people or groups who can't support themselves. A problem with welfare is that it usually leaves out the people who are in extreme poverty. The definition of extreme poverty is anyone or any family that are under less than half the poverty brink. For these Americans it is often to hard for them to maneuver themselves through the the welfare system. Other people can also have addictions or poor education and are unable to navigate through the system either. This is one reason why there are so many home less and unsafe people.

Welfare abuse is a severe problem across the country. Each year, millions of Americans receive government benefits such as housing assistance, food stamps, telephone service, and other funds. Welfare is a kind of system that is being set by a government to help and assist families and individuals who are having a hard time providing for themselves such as food, clothing, education and health assistance. This program helped many families survive during The Great Depression and still helps families survive today. Welfare, which was once meant to help individuals re enter society, has been abused and manipulated. The abuse of the Welfare System has become a serious problem. Many dependent persons rely mainly on welfare for their sole source of

The welfare system was created before the government welfare programs started. The system was created to help single mothers, children with disabilities, unemployment and, underemployment. The system offers many different ways to help such as: cash assistance, food stamps, employment assistance, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The system has helped a lot of needy families and still continues to help a lot of families. Many Americans have now started to qualify for help from the system. So people will get help from the system and stay on it just because it’s free.

Historically government of the United States always made an attempt to provide support to its people, especially those struggling. One-way government support its people is by providing welfare. Webster dictionary defines welfare as “money paid by the government to those who are in need of financial assistance, are unable to work, or whose circumstances mean the income they require for basic needs is in excess of their salary.” Welfare was established under the President Franklin D. Roosevelt, by Social Security Act of 1935, and administered by individual states and territories for the government to help poverty. President Roosevelt implemented this program because of the Great Depression. When the Great Depression

looking for work should not be receiving welfare checks. Critics cite the classic example of

Many different programs were created, all of which were designed to provide Americans jobs, give temporary aid to the needy, and in a broad sense just get America out of the Great Depression. Welfare was implemented to provide temporary aid to the needy so that they could use such capital to get back on his/her feet and continue with a productive life (“Fix Welfare”).

Throughout history, there have always been people willing to work for what they want, and those who expect things to be handed to them as if it was a natural-born right. While the welfare system does positively impact some families in need, many people take advantage of it. With this being a well known fact, the government still continues to use ten percent of the federal budget on welfare (“Budget” 1).

First off the Welfare System was first started back during the Great Depression which was funded by the government to help aid the families who were heavily affected during the time. The system had still stayed in play to modern times to help families whose income was lower than average help pay for everyday necessities. The term “Welfare” is just a generalized term however welfare in general help provide the same services. To help families with lower income get by on a daily life basis. This sounds like the dream to someone who has been