Welfare Reform : The United States

In the United States there are “over 100 million people receiving some form of federal welfare” (Munoz#7). The purpose of creating the welfare system was to provide aid to those families with “little to no income” (article 1). Back in 1996 Clinton passed the welfare reform act; allowing state full control of the welfare system. The Welfare Reform Act was to help steer welfare

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was enacted in order to change the current welfare policy at the time. This welfare policy that existed was originally meant to provide financial assistance as well as decent healthcare coverage during times of economic hardship (Kaestner, 2004). This policy was implemented as a way to help hundreds of thousands of families overcome financial hurdles. However, the idea behind the reforming of welfare was to avoid the stereotypical individuals that lived off of welfare to continue doing so. Evidence existed that concluded that people who lived off of government welfare assistance were actually allowing this system to destroy their desire to work and sustain themselves (Rector & Marshall, 2013). Welfare was seen as a detrimental part of the government and it was viewed as feeding into a lazy and poorly disciplined class of individuals. Welfare's initial intention was to aid widows who had children to support, but in a matter of decades the entire welfare system converted from being a safety net for individuals in dire times of need, to a support system for able-bodied men who lacked motivation to find employment and sustain themselves and their families (Rector & Marshall, 2013). The Welfare Reform Act came as a way to remedy these problems. Stipulations were put on those applying to receive welfare benefits. Limits were enacted that would reduce the amount of time that people could receive the benefits in order to speed up their

Welfare is a program in the United States that provides economic support to citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. This program was started during the 1930’s to help out the millions of people who were affected by the great depression. By the 1960’s the welfare program was not being used the same and many believed it was being misused. The welfare program in the United States should be abolished because it costs more than it helps, it is a waste of money, it is abused, and because it teaches bad work ethics.

Throughout modern human history there has been an ongoing struggle of whether to help the poor and how to help them. In today’s political scene in the US mostly only extremely staunch conservatives feel that we should offer no aid to the poor of America. So, then the argument becomes how to best help them. Welfare is widely considered to be the main way that America helps the poor. So what is welfare exactly? Welfare can be defined as aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need distributed through an agency or program. In general liberals feel that America should offer a large amount of aid and pull people out of debt with government funds while still trying to get them back to work. In general conservatives feel that the poor should have to already have a job before we help them and many also call for drug testing before offering assistance. To try to create these scenarios, parties use welfare reform. Welfare reform is a bill that alters the current program so that it operates in a different way. The most recent welfare reform was in 1996 by Bill Clinton and was called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. This act in general aimed to hand over

As Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist once famously said, “It’s about the economy stupid!” This world is run by money, and inevitably there are the haves and the have-nots. The welfare state is a system which offers a grouping of benefits geared towards helping all members of society achieve prosperity and be successful members of society, however it is often criticized and debated in the US. The welfare state is not obsolete, as it fosters educational development to help solidify the future, and keeps from creating a reliance on welfare, all without excessively depleting the US of its monetary funds.

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.

In 1930 the American people lost their hope. The stock market had crashed, and the infrastructure of America had crumbled. Families learned the true meaning of deprivation and hard times. The same fear was in the hearts of all the people… Was this the end of the American dream? The citizens were starving, homeless, and hopeless. The only two things that rekindled their dim faith was their pioneer spirit, and a promise from Franklin D. Roosevelt. Those people knew that the only way to rebuild this country was to get back up again and work hard. The government knew that they had to do something, and that something was The New Deal. This was the beginning of government funded financial assistance, which is known today as welfare. This system has adapted and changed over the years. The biggest change that it has undergone was implemented by President Bill Clinton in 1996. The Welfare Reform Act vowed to end welfare as the people knew it, and there have been numerous controversies over the program since. Welfare negatively affects the American dream by devaluing hard work and creating economic unrest.

Reforming the welfare system was first initiated by Bill Clinton in 1996, by keeping a promise “to end welfare as we know it.” Between the years of 1989 and 1994, there had been a 33% increase in the number of households receiving welfare. Originally, these provisions of reform were implemented as a strategy to increase labor market production among public assistance recipients. Many held the belief that those receiving welfare had become too dependent on public assistance. It was suggested that welfare discouraged those receiving benefits from working. Becoming employed would mean losing benefits, while also incurring an array of expenses that were typically covered through public assistance, such as health insurance. As dependency became a primary concern, fundamental reform rooted itself into the minds of the working-class. Although, the idea of getting rid of welfare as a whole was unpopular, the belief that those in need were being discouraged from employment through what was often referred to as “the welfare trap” called for reformation within the system.

"The U.S. Congress kicked off welfare reform nationwide last October with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, heralding a new era in which welfare recipients are required to look for work as a condition of benefits." http://www.detnews.com/1997/newsx/welfare/rules/rules.htm. Originally, the welfare system was created to help poor men, women, and children who are in need of financial and medical assistance. Over the years, welfare has become a way of life for its recipients and has created a culture of dependency. Currently, the government is in the process of reforming the welfare system. The welfare reform system’s objective was to get people off the welfare system and onto the

The welfare system has helped families from around the 1930’s. Social welfare in the United States consists of groups of variety programs. The programs are designed to assist people who are in need of assistance. The goal of the welfare program is to reduce poverty. Poverty undermines the economy by disturbing the normal growth of human capital. Including education, health and professional experience. All the welfare programs require different means of eligibility. There are programs that help with food, housing, Pell Grants, child care, and health care. In this paper I will give a brief review of the most popular programs. I will also tell the requirements to receive benefits. Then I will include a government review of fraud within the

Welfare Reform: Promoting Personal Responsibility and Serving the Needs of the PoorIntroductionDuring Bill Clinton’s campaign for Presidency in 1992, he promised Americans that he would make it his priority to end welfare as we know it (Clinton). This goal was made in response to the increase of public pressure to reform a system that many believed had become wasteful and ineffective. In response to this criticism, Clinton called attention to the importance of work instead of dependency on the government. He followed through with his promises and effectively transformed welfare programs unlike any other president. He took a system that was known for its long-term dependency and transformed it to help people become self-supporting. In this

Welfare was designed to reduce poverty, yet the poverty rates have only increased. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (welfare) was designed to help families struggling with financial hardships for a short period of time. It is not a lifelong program like so many assume it is. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit” (Gaiser 3). What he meant by saying this is that we are enabling people to become dependent on others which is detrimental, not only to the recipients of welfare, but to the nation as a whole. We are not doing any good to anyone by continually supporting the poor and underprivileged with welfare systems because they are not doing their job; they are not helping people out of poverty. In fact, the Libertarian Party says they are doing just the opposite, and now that officials have realized this, they are trying to make up for it. However, they are doing so in the wrogn ways. The welfare reform has pushed

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

What would happen if the government made changes to the welfare system? There are approximately 110,489,000 of Americans on welfare. Many people benefit from what the system has to offer: food stamps, housing, health insurance, day care, and unemployment. Taxpayers often argue that the individuals who benefit from the system, abuse the system; however, this is not entirely true. Many of the people who receive benefits really and truly need the help. Even though some people believe welfare should be reformed, welfare should not be reformed because 40% of single mothers are poor, some elderly people do not have a support system, and college students can not afford to take extra loans.

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.