Welfare Fraud Case Study

People generally enjoy working and being productive members of society. The positive effects of the Welfare Reform Act is moving to eventually end poverty in America and promote economic growth. According to the 2005 report measuring welfare dependents “Poverty in 2003 remains much lower than in 1996, the year of passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The official poverty rate for 2003 was 12.5 percent, compared to 13.7 percent in 1996.” ( Gil Crouse, Susan Hauan, Julia Isaacs, Kendall Swenson and Lisa Trivits, 2005 ) States that design welfare-to-work policies that emphasized getting recipients into jobs by shifting to “work-first” welfare systems can modify program rules to allow more earned income,

There are 109,631,000 Americans on welfare, and only 105,862,000 full time working Americans. The fact that the amount of people on welfare outnumbers those who work, shows how our country is deteriorating. Some individuals on welfare take advantage of the system and exchange the things given to them, such as food stamps, for drugs or alcohol. I think anyone who does that should be taken off of welfare. In order to prevent that from happening in the future, I believe a system should be made. The system would determine whether an individual is deserving of government assistance or not. In order to be on welfare, there would be a drug test that has to be passed to even be considered. If passed, there would be quarterly drug tests that have to be passed in order to continue to get help from the government. There should also be a standard set that determines if the severity of the person’s disability is worthy of governmental assistance. If they meet all the criteria and pass their quarterly drug tests, then they deserve to be on welfare. Those who do not meet the criteria and are qualified to work, should get a job in order to support themselves and their

Welfare fraud is leading to economic waste in Texas. This issue has increasingly attracted the attention of many researchers. Welfare is a term commonly used to refer to the provision of the minimal level of social support, as well as, well-being. Mostly, welfare and welfare benefits are provided to people who live on low or no income in order to meet to their specific needs. Within the US, welfare benefits are provided through welfare programs. These are often state regulated programs meant for those people living under the minimum accepted level means as determined by the various state governments. In his research study, Esping-Andersen (2013) determined that welfare benefits could potentially fall under a diverse

America spends an annual amount of 131.9 billion dollars on welfare alone (Department of Commerce). So many facts about welfare are overwhelming, such that over 12,800,000 Americans are on the welfare system. The entire social welfare system is in desperate need of a complete reform. In order for a proper reform to ensue, the people of America must combine efforts with the U.S. government to revitalize the current welfare system. This reform would involve answering two important questions. First, how has today’s welfare system strayed from its original state and secondly, how is the system abused by welfare holders in today’s economy?

There remains a remnant of citizens who honestly cannot do without the welfare system and who abide by the regulation of the welfare system, however, the system unintentionally invites scam artists. The ways of abusing the welfare system continuos to grow. Here are just a few of the examples. Citizens are staying single parents in order to receive aid. Parents view having more children as a gateway to receiving more money from the system. Recipients refuse to search for jobs and report employment in order to continue receiving assistance. People seem to easily make false claims, requesting assistance when they do not need it. Although, there is a set time period for receiving funds many citizens become comfortable and lazy during assistance. The whole purpose of the system is to get citizens through rough economical problems and back to a independent lifestyle without government aid. However, the systems seems to encourage complacency in society and provide fraud play in

The welfare systems are based on the principle of public responsibility on equitable wealth distribution and equality of opportunities to citizens who are unable to afford minimal levels of quality and good life, through provision of universal education programs, health care and subsidised housing. In most of the states, welfare systems are not used in the right manner they are intended to. Although the systems are meant to reduce the poverty level and at least assists individuals to get decent jobs, many recipients develops news ways every year to prolong their dependency in the system. Statistics show that women easily abuse the welfare system by simply having more children each year since this means that more money will come in their mails. Most of the recipients on welfare are able to work

Maybe by providing stricter guidelines, such as job search requirements, along with proof of the job search, welfare would not be as attractive and recipients will be more likely to get a job. Newt Gringrich, a Former speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote an essay titled “Renewing America” “The welfare system has sapped the spirit of the poor and made it harder to climb the first rung of the economic ladder.” (usnews.com). Sucha system has placed an unfair burden on the hard workers who are forced to pay for these programs. Gringrich states, “Why should taxpayers be forced to take fiscal responsibility for those who do not take responsibility for themselves? He continues to say “As individuals,we are responsible for our own actions and their consequences.” If people do notcare about their own well being then why should I be forced to care? As Gringrich sees it, “If society is responsible for everything, then no one is personally responsible for anything. With that said, without responsibility, are we truly free? Welfare should be used for the right purposes; to help those who are truly in need get on their feet and become successful. But because of the excessive misuse, welfare has now developed a stigma, and should be reformed to its original notion, and that is for its help and not

For most of America’s history, farmers, entrepreneurs or shop owners could live their entire lives without getting any assistance from the federal government except maybe mail. But those days are long gone. In 2012 the total number of Americans on government assistance or welfare reached 4,3000,000. Many of which are 4th or 5th generation Welfare recipients. For whatever the reason, we have become a culture of dependency in which poverty is a trap. Long-term recipients loose job skills, work habits as well as work contacts. For this reason the government should require recipients to work as much as they can. It could be called “workfare” and could help recipients increase potential long-term earnings.

I can remember the conversation as if it was yesterday. While in a grocery store walking in the grocery aisle, I overheard a woman talking to another woman and her husband. The part that caught my attention was the young lady saying, “I can get you the cheese, milk, and eggs with my WIC, and all you have to do is give me the money when we leave the store.” I knew this wasn’t right, so I made sure I was at the check-out counter to see if what I overheard was true. To my surprise, the young woman paid for things using a check like piece of paper and waited for the couple to leave the store. In the parking lot, I witnessed the young lady giving the

“Lana M. and her husband collected welfare benefits in 2003, claiming they earned less than $24,000. But authorities say Lana M., the former office manager of a job-training center for immigrant welfare recipients, also owned a liquor store and recycling business. Authorities say, she drove a $76,000 luxury car, shopped at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue and had $147,980 stashed in her bedroom dresser” (“Welfare” 7). This case for instance, how did this couple’s income go undetected by the system? How did their greed get away with thousands of dollars they obviously did not need? Not only did they cheat and scam the welfare system and tax payers, but they took away the assistance from a family or individual that where truly seeking aid. While reading through some articles when researching information on this matter I learned that it is not easy to apply for Welfare Programs. Applicants are required to provide important documentations such as “Source of income, proof of identity, social security cards, proof of residence cost, copy of mortgage payments, pay stubs and applicants are even required to provide saving and checking accounts information and cash on hand” (“Tips” 7). With all these information in our government’s hand, fraud should be the last thing on peoples’ mind. Tax payers should rest assured that the money they have worked so extremely hard

The issue that I have decided to address is welfare abuse. I propose that due to the government’s lack of foresight, welfare recipients have been cashing EBT benefits at ATM machines in California casino’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.

The history of welfare reform reveals that the question of personal responsibility versus assistance to those in need has been a constant in the debate over welfare. In the 1950s and 1960s, welfare reform was limited to various states' attempts to impose residency requirements on welfare applicants and remove illegitimate children from the welfare rolls. During the 1970s advocates of welfare reform promoted the theory of

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).

There are many pros and cons of social welfare policy. Unfortunately, when the word welfare is mentioned many people view it in a highly negative way which affects our society as a whole in seeing the real picture of why welfare is vital and necessary for the survival of many families. Welfare should not be viewed as being available for only those who only fall under the federal poverty guideline. Consequently, many families fall slightly over the federal poverty guidelines and are barely making ends meet. Many working families fall short of not being able to apply for the assistance that they really need due to policy guidelines. Strict Welfare Policy makes it more difficult for eligibility. However, where there is opportunity, people will take advantage of it, even working citizens that may not be deemed eligible. Additionally, the way the screening process is set in place with certain laws, rules and regulations, the system falls short of really looking at the bigger picture of a certain percentage of the working poor class that may still be in need of some type of assistance to the high cost of living today. Sometimes one working income just isn’t enough and the most affected are the children and elderly. There is much to debate when it comes to really asking the question, “Is the Federal Poverty Level line cut off too short?” Welfare Policy laws and guidelines are very essential to the success of many program in place to help those with a public assistance need, but