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Social Welfare Policy Analysis

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In 2012, it was reported that approximately 21.3% of the United States population participated in government assistance programs each month. Many of the major public assistance programs are based off of the needs of the individual and before these individuals are eligible for these services they must participate in means tests. Some states even believe that when applying to these public assistance programs one should have to be drug tested as a condition of their eligibility. With that being said, the main social welfare policy issue that I have chosen to focus on for this paper is the issue of states wanting to enforce mandatory drug testing as a prerequisite to receive state welfare assistance. This ongoing issue is also known as the Drug …show more content…

This is where the pressing issue of wanting to mandate drug tests as a condition of being approved for welfare services came from. This act has come about due to the issues regarding substance abuse having been extensive during public assistance policy discussions. Since 1996, many states have considered mandating drug screenings for welfare applicants/recipients, but this policy did not gain momentum until the 2011 session. In 2011, three states passed legislation and four states enacted laws for this issue in 2012. In 2013, two more states approved legislation and then in 2014 three more states passed legislation. As of 2014, the total number of with legislation about this issue was up to twelve (Finzel, 2015). Since the 1996 federal welfare reform there have been a number of different states that have passed legislation regarding this issue and there have been even more states that have made proposals about this issue. As time goes on the number of states approving this act continues to grow, as does the number of state proposals of this …show more content…

This analysis framework provides individuals with positive information and helps us be able to make better decisions as a result of these policies. This particular analysis framework does however forces one to question whether or not requiring applicants/recipients to be drug tested is ethical and if as social workers could we really consider making that part of the assessment process or

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