Work Challenges Faced by People with Mental Health Issues after Living on Welfare

"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 article "Flat Broke with Children" Sharon Hays gave a lot of insight about what people think of welfare. She took the opinions of people using welfare and also the people not using welfare. Welfare has helped many in the united states. Most that are on welfare think of it as a security blanket. Times do get rough and life does happen.

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

By requiring people on welfare to work, and assisting them to get low-paying jobs if nothing else, the state and local governments give the people incentive to get better paying jobs and keep them. I read an article once that showed the correlation between government-assisted welfare workers and full-time permanent employment of those same workers later. I firmly believe that people will help and support themselves if given a decent chance. This country is founded on the idea of self-sufficiency. We are taught this in the public schools from the first day. We are trained not to cheat, not to steal answers from another person's paper, and not to depend on others to do our work for us. It seems to be an innate human quality that people want to rely on upon themselves and achieve goals on their own. When people who are down on their luck are given a helping hand, often they will move from

With these figures it’s no wonder why people choose to live off the government. Welfare makes their lives too comfortable. The goal of welfare should be to encourage recipients to leave the welfare roles and enter the workforce. 68.6% of welfare recipients report that they aren’t actively seeking work. Why should they? There are plenty of

Welfare is not intended to be a way for citizens to have a way out of having to look for employment, but for many that is what it has become. An estimated 21.3% of all Americans were on some sort of Welfare program each month in 2012 (Bureau). Fraud is a commonly found problem within the welfare system, and it can come in many forms. The eligibility of welfare applicants are reviewed annually, but this allows for errors to occur in the manner of which the applicant could be eligible for a half a year, but they still receive assistance for the rest of the year when they no longer need it (Ribali). The annual check for eligibility accounts for the fair amount

The welfare reform system’s goal was to get people off the welfare system and onto the job market. The hope was to move people from dependency to self-reliance. Opposition to the new welfare reform system has occurred. Some believe "support in a welfare-to-work program might create new problems for children by adding strains to family life or by exposing children to poor substitute care arrangements for policies that design welfare-to-work programs that pursue the dual goals of economic self-sufficiency for families and healthy development of children." (http://www.nga.org/welfare/employmentretentationemployed.htm).

Current welfare programs deny the independence of individual recipients in various ways. Americans on welfare tend to become very dependent on the government since they constantly gain benefits without having to work as hard as the average American. Because of handed-out benefits, America 's look on self-reliance, personal responsibility, and advancement has weakened (Will 10). Many welfare programs encourage others to accept benefits from the government, resulting in people becoming lazy and unable to search for work. This is somewhat hypocritical due to the fact that America is known for its independence, responsibility, and

Welfare is when working individuals have a certain percentage of their overall income taxed, which allows for people without jobs to have access to financial assistance (Molander). In retrospect, welfare is beneficial for society since it provides a sense of safety net for all those who contribute. For example; if a citizen were to ever find themselves unemployed; they would not have to worry about going hungry, which is the purpose of the welfare system. Currently in Governmental financial assistance there are flaws that allow for people to cheat the system in order to better their economic status; even if they do not need it. In welfare there have been found to be two types of people: “Cannots” and “Will nots” (Molander). Cannots being the people who want to work, but just cannot find employment (Molander). Cannots are in welfare temporarily and only for the period in which they are in necessity for financial assistance, and after they find themselves in a better place, they leave the system. “Will nots” are typically the applicants who cheat the system and commit fraud in order to avoid employment (Molander). These applicants will find themselves in the welfare system and refuse to get out creating a cycle of leaning on the government for financial help. Will nots are the primary reason that the welfare is presented with the challenges of funding; later resulting in the higher taxing of working individuals. With stricter regulations and minor changes to the system, the problem of “will nots” can be potentially

For example, unemployed workers who receive an unemployment benefit may be able continue to support their families. Disadvantages:The biggest disadvantage of welfare is its cost to the local governments that control it. Even with federal support, states feel the burden of welfare in each annual budget. One of the concerns is that welfare may discourage some recipients to seek work, since an increase in earnings would exclude them from getting free benefits. Fraud would also be a concern if someone supplies false information in order to get benefits that they do not qualify for. Alternative:As an alternative of giving welfare directly to those in need, funding programs that educate on new skills or help seeking jobs for the unemployed should be implemented. These programs, if implemented, can show drastic changes in unemployment rates over time. Restrictions on welfare, such as the time limits for getting unemployment benefits or a maximum monthly food stamp allowance, serve to limit the government's responsibility in a way that open-ended welfare does not.Conclusion: The social welfare reform has improved tremendously but still has more progress to be

Welfare in the United States refers to the Federal Government programs that have been put in place to assist the unemployed. Welfare programs include Medicaid, WIC Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Section 8 (HUD). The history of Welfare in the U.S started long before the welfare programs we know. Laws were made for those who were unable to work due to their age or physical health, and those who were able, but unemployed. Eligibility for a Welfare program depends on numerous factors. It’s determined using gross, net income, size of family, and different situations such as pregnancy, homelessness, or unemployment. A case worker will be assigned to those applying to

First of all, people who are on welfare usually do become dependent on assistance because it gives them an incentive to avoid work. Many generations of families have been living on welfare assistance and have not made any reasonable efforts to prosper within our society. According to the article Welfare in the United States, “Some people get on welfare because they were laid off or relocated, but whatever the reason, some get stuck on welfare much longer than necessary and no one has the ability to remove them” (Redyns, 2007). Welfare was designed to give a boost to the poor, and help struggling families make it through the year,

Applying for government benefits when you don’t need it will definitely turn you into a failure. On the flip side, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using government benefits as a crutch to get on your feet. But when it’s your end all be all, there’s a serious problem. Some people become extremely content with being on government benefits to the point they become bored. Their minds start wondering, fixated on the 1st of the month and the 15th checks. Some extreme welfare recipients have come up with legal ways to receive their checks on the 27th of the month through direct deposit. Illegally, some use their checks to buy narcotics and flip the drug money. Some even claim other people 's kids

The welfare system, a blessing or a curse. A blessing for many ,but does it take away a persons work incentive? Is it fair for the hard working for pay for people who refuse to work and just collect benefits. I think not there are many types of welfare fraud some examples, are absent parent in the home is when a couple living in the same home raises a child but on the welfare forms puts that he/she is a single parent just to get more benifits.

However many states choose not to implement such programs and choose only to get welfare recipients into the workforce with minimal training prior. When states choose such options it often leaves the recipient and their family in poverty. Also, with the new limits on availability of public aid being reduced to 5 years, if the new job that they are forced to take does not work out, they can not go back to welfare because time limits have run out.