The article addresses the myth surrounding welfare. Americans common belief government's aid enhances corruption among poor people has its roots in the past —even Franklin Delano Roosevelt considered welfare “a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” However, recent statistics highlights the beneficial’ effects of cash assistance for the poor. The welfare positively impacts the life of children, improving the quality of their nutrition and education. Moreover, in a moment of great economic recession the welfare is the only net that can support people in need.
Like the bike you bought after saving lawn-mowing money for a year, welfare reform was the prized trophy of the conservative governing philosophy. We believed that we’d found the vehicle of social mobility for poor Americans, once and for all. No one should live on taxpayer money without doing some work on their own, right? Everyone agrees, right? Wrong.
As time passed however, she began to notice the progress which it brought. This changed her view in support of welfare. She continues to supports her stand on this program by sectioning off the reform and its results. The first subheading of the article is entitled The Reforms. In this section she simply states what the goal of the reform was, “The new law gave the states strong incentives to push more welfare recipients into jobs or job placement programs.”
Conclusion Due to the economic setbacks of the early 2000s, local revenue was down which led to many states decreasing many of the “supplemental work programs” that supported TANF and the Work to Welfare program up until that time. There were many states that had used all of their surpluses they were able to save in the 1990s which also led to more cutbacks in the federal grants-in-aid to state, local and other federal domestic programs. Because of the cutbacks,
TANF stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. It is a federally funded grant program that allows states to create and administer their own assistance programs for families in need. TANF replaces the federal programs previously known as 'welfare, ' and enables states to offer a wide variety of social services. One significant change from the old 'welfare ' system is that TANF recipients must participate in work activities in or to receive benefits. This means that parents receiving TANF must be employed in some capacity, be working toward employment, or taking classes aimed at increasing their
In her article “The Largely Untold Story of Welfare Reform and the Human Services,” Mimi Abramovitz discusses a study done on workers or numerous welfare agencies in New York. She describes several issues experienced by many social workers that the agencies reported following the social welfare reform, including frustrations at having to take time from clinical work with their clients to explain the new welfare rules and to focus on work related issues, their decreased time with clients due to the excessive paperwork and sped up service provisions, and a perceived loss of control over their work as a result of client loss, insufficient time, and lacks in access to information and government resources. Furthermore, many social workers felt
Hanley wrote this article in order to persuade his readers that welfare is a very crucial part of some people’s lives, and Donald Trump should not cut its funding. In order to achieve this, Hanley makes use of statistics and facts throughout the article explaining how beneficial social welfare truly is. He conducted research and credited most of his findings to historian Michael B. Katz of the University of Pennsylvania. In the article, he states that there was a 60% decline of people living in poverty between 1960 and 1980 due to social welfare. He also states that between these
The TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, did have its initial intended impact. TANK was implemented as a new program under President Clinton to lower the dependency of families on welfare which is one of the sole reasons the government made the decision to switch from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to TANF. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priority [CBPP], “The national TANF caseload has declined by over 60 percent over the last 18 years, even as poverty and deep poverty (i.e., income below half the poverty line) have worsened” (2015). TANF received results that the federal government was looking forward to at the time. There are four goals that TANF is required to meet to contribute to the better life for families and children that fall below the poverty line: “(1) provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; (2) end the dependence of needy parents on
It is obvious that only the kids want welfare but, why is that? Rose Mary states, “Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case” (188). This statement from her tells the reader her why to not accepting welfare. In this sense welfare is symbolizing negativity and disservice to the family.
The 1996 Welfare Reform Act abolished Federal Cash Assistance and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs, all of which many believed locked people in the perpetual cycle of state- assisted poverty. There were three research findings on the “efficacy of the 1996 reform, all gave a summary of the most influential studies conducted by US researchers. Nearly all reached the same conclusions: First, Welfare Reform under the Clinton administration did result in a significant shift into new employment by the long-term welfare recipients. Secondly, the overall strong growth conditions were linked to the U.S. during the late 1900s. Third, the growth in income and employment experienced by the American poor welfare to work transition
During the late 1980’s Ronald Reagan wanted to advocate self-independence and advancement. He believed too that he needed to sign into the law of welfare bill. Regan stated “reform that will lead to lasting emancipation from welfare dependency” (Davies, 1). Unfortunately, the welfare reform didn’t get its message through which was to promote self-responsibility and self-support. During the 1960 and 1970 the ideals of liberalism were not spoken about.
First, welfare reform has reduced the number of people receiving cash assistance through programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This is seen as a positive outcome because it encourages people to work and be self-sufficient. Second, welfare reform has increased the emphasis on work requirements and job training, which helps people acquire the skills they need to succeed in the job market. Third, welfare reform has encouraged states to experiment with different approaches to delivering assistance and supporting work, which can lead to more effective and efficient programs. Decrease in TANF Caseloads: Since the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996, the number of families receiving cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program has decreased significantly.
In some cases, women were using different names and false social security number to obtain public assistance (Martin 35). At first these action were taken as a moral issue; people who benefited for this welfare were identified as lazy, incapable of money management and lack good habits. It was in 1976 when this term took at twist and became a tool of a political used by President Ronald Reagan during his presidential campaign (p2_Martin 35). When we repeatedly misinformed his followers by giving the wrong image of people under welfare as the ones who were acting as poor but owing expensive cars at the cost of public assistance but he ignored the facts that these people are indeed the victims of an unjust society.
Some say we need a reform, while some say it’s fine as it is. The idea of welfare first came to America back when the US was still a group of British colonies. The British Poor Laws were created to assist those unable to work due to poor health and provided jobs for those unemployed but without a job by offering work in workhouses. After the United States was founded as its own nation, we had to think of a solution for dealing with the poor of the country.
Her work was similar to what Karl Marx describes in his theory of alienation and exploitation. She was able to do her study on the working class by living the day to day life of a low wage worker and had great insight into their lives, except she limited herself by having added cash, a vehicle, and a rental deposit (Ehrenreich, B. 2001). After reading the first part of Ehrenreich’s book, and imagining what the low wage worker may think of the American economy I can truly believe they see the injustice between working classes rather than accepting the low paying life they are living. There truly is a huge difference between working classes, from how they work, get paid, treatment, feeling of self-worth, and everyday living
