Welfare is supposed to be financial support given to people in need. The welfare program began in the 1930's during the Great Depression. The US government wanted to help people and their families that was in need of aid, so they created a welfare program that assistant those who had little or no income. There’s nothing wrong with assisting people who need the help, but the problem arises when people abuse the program. It’s not fair when the government takes money from the hard working people and redistribute the money to the citizens that’s “needy”. Some argue that welfare is a good thing because it helps truly desperate and deserving individuals. If the individuals were truly desperate, then there would be no problem with welfare. …show more content…
When President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill, he said ''Today we are taking a historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life.” Government assistance has become a target for greedy mothers and other individuals who doesn’t have any value. People have become so used to government assistance instead of using it to stay up while looking for a job, they are sitting around waiting for the next check to come in. Many mothers are steady having children, because more children equals more welfare money. According to Murray, “Woman…who wants to have babies… thinks that the prospect of having a baby is attractive, but so is having money to spend on themselves (65),” it’s sad that’s one of the biggest problems with the current system in place. The money that the mothers receive from the government, they don’t always put to good use. Food stamps are one of the most common assistance programs closely related to welfare and they are one of ones that doesn’t get put to good use. For example, I know several people and heard of several people selling their food stamps. People who don’t receive food stamps go to people who do and buy theirs for half the price. You can get $200 worth of food stamps from them for a $100 just so they can have some cash to go buy whatever they want. The result from them selling all their stamps equals their kids hungry, but …show more content…
The application process can easily be manipulated. Conditions and resources a person live by makes a large impact on the application process, but records could easily be falsified to make a person more eligible. After submitting an application for government assistance, they must be interviewed to see if they really need the assistance. The government should be stricter and look more into people situations before giving them assistance. They need to do background checks to check to see what type of person they are dealing with and to see what their work history look like. Another thing they can do is ask for receipts to see what the people bought and make sure it equals the amount they were provided with. It might be a hassle to look at everyone receipts, but if that’s what it takes that’s what needs to be done. Welfare should be given to those who have a serious mental condition or physical disability. People who cannot find work shouldn’t be on welfare because they tend to become lazy in finding a job and some just stop looking because they get money from the government. The government should put a limit on the length of time a person who is unemployed can receive welfare benefits maybe then they will help motivate them to find a job within six months through a
...al treatment, exceptions, to normally strict regulations, could be made in extreme circumstances for needy people. Having one rule, with no exceptions, can only add argument and debate. Welfare is definitely a good program if truly needed, but if misused, can only punish the ones that need it. I guarantee, though, that if you look around, you will find some form of abuse of the government, whether it be through welfare, workman's compensation, or many other types of government aide.
Welfare can be defined as health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being; Prosperity; and Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need (Merriam-Webster, 2014). It can be very beneficial to people in need of it. Tim Prenzler stated that, “Welfare systems are often seen as providing a ‘safety net’ that prevents citizens falling below a minimum standard of living (2012, p2). Everyone is able to use is if they are in need of it. People have successfully used welfare to get out of their slum, and started to support themselves. Others have decided to not try to get out of that slum, and live off that welfare. They decided that they didn’t have to try, and let the government support them. Welfare is a good tool for people to get back on their feet, but shouldn’t be that persons steady income.
My views towards welfare have somewhat changed during the process of research. When I first started researching “welfare” I only thought about all the people who cheat the system. But, then I realized how many people need and do get support from welfare. There are more people receiving help from welfare, then people hurting it. Yes, there is a group of people who scam welfare, but there is a side that relies on welfare.
Welfare is intended for families or individuals that are in need of assistance with no or little income. For those who do not know, Welfare funds come from hard working individuals that are required to pay taxes. Now we wonder, are the tax payers’ hard earned money going to the right deserving recipients? Welfare fraud is on the rise in this country. Many are taking advantage of the system taking away the help that is meant for people that truly needed help to provide for their families or people that need assistance until they can stand on their own feet. Statistics clearly show that “785,000 to 1.2 million families are illegally receiving welfare benefits. At the average rate of $11,500 per year, this means taxpayers are being scammed out of roughly $9 to $13.5 billion dollars every year” (User, par. 4) that is $13.5 Billion dollars of the tax payers hard earned money that is going to the wrong people that do not deserve it. What are the types of Welfare fraud that are being committed in the United States that our government needs to pay close attention to? To start, hopeful recipients will intentionally give false information about their household income to qualify. Some will sell their food stamps also known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP). Also, illegal and misuse of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is one of the problems our Welfare System is facing today. All three are considered illegal and these type of activities need to be stopped immediately. People that are in need should be given the assistance they desperately ask for. The System should re-assure tax payers that their hard earned money is going to the right recipients and is not going into the wrong hands.
Michael Katz of the University of Pennsylvania defines welfare in this quote “The welfare state is how a society insures against the risks inherent in human life - unemployment, poverty, sickness, and old age - that in one way or another confront everyone.” (Katz). Accordingly the United States’ citizens and government has been thought of as charitable, but unfavorably, government intervention might be altering United States’ citizens’ charita...
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy raised the current welfare payments and renamed the program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Kennedy allowed states to require work in order to receive welfare, but didn’t require it. Kennedy also laid out the new goal for welfare in America, it was to “end poverty, not just alleviate poverty” (Background: Time for a new Approach). Kennedy said welfare should be “a hand up, not a hand out." Welfare continued to change...
When you hear the words “welfare” what comes to mind? To me, the word welfare has always had a very negative connotation. However, after looking further into the concept behind it all, welfare isn’t always such a bad thing. In general, welfare provides financial stability for those who are otherwise unable to do so. Welfare can be very beneficial to a multitude of people with many different ways to make life easier. Welfare in the United States refers to a federal welfare program that has been put into place to benefit unemployed people or just your average lower class person. The most common forms of welfare are Medicaid and food stamps. Believe it or not, a welfare program is not a new idea. Welfare has started long before we were born. In the early days of welfare, the British put into place something called “poor laws”. These laws distinguished who was able to work and provide for themselves and who wasn’t due to physical condition or even how old they were. This was very similar to what President Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the times known as the great depression. The Social Security Act was amended in 1939, which gave lower income people more money throughout the depression. Unemployment Compensation and Aid to Dependent Children are two welfare programs that are still out there today. Welfare programs can benefit you in areas such as health, housing, tax relief and just more money in your pocket. Welfare is not only an American idea. In the Islāmic culture the word zakat means charity. Zakat is actually one of the five pillars of faith. This money has been collected by the government since the 7th century. The taxes, however, still have the same benefit to us. The taxes were collected and used to provide income to ...
Many of us have heard cases of welfare recipients who have taken advantage of the welfare state system. As a result many of us believe welfare is a bad thing in our society. Like I previously stated welfare is more than just receiving free money, welfare was created to level the playing field for those who have had disadvantages in life. The traditional welfare as we know is cash-aid and this affects recipients in our community because it provides job programs for those who have previously lost their jobs. If approved, the fifteen page application provides recipients with more or less of three hundred dollars a month to pay for rent. Not only ...
The United States government’s welfare program is potentially sending the government down the drain. The U.S. alone is in millions of dollars of debt, and the welfare program is not helping to get the country out of debt but further into debt. Over half of the American population is currently receiving some sort of benefit, and not every person receiving these benefits needs the money. We live in a selfish society. A society where we would do anything and everything to gain a little extra money so we will not have to work for it. The welfare system the United States currently runs is not proper or right. The welfare system is corrupted and full with cheats and frauds benefitting from taxpayers money.
Welfare is government program in which individuals who cannot support their families, either from lack of employment or lack of good employment, can receive money from the government as aid. The first programs originate from the 1930s as the New Deal when the United States clawed its way out of the Great Depression (Auerbach). The program has its draw backs though. "Welfare is hated by those who administer it, mistrusted by those who pay for it and held in contempt by those who receive it" (Goldmark, 1). The United States is currently divided between people who feel that we should continue to keep the welfare budget as it is and those who feel the welfare budget is too large and needs to be cut down.
In conclusion, I feel the welfare system was intended to be an ethical program. Over the years it has become more and more distant from the aiding program it was designed to be. It has become more of an enabling program. I feel the welfare program enables people receiving benefits, the guidelines should be stricter, and the program could possibly be eliminated. There are too many people receiving benefits abusing the system, and unfortunately ruining a good thing for people abiding by the rules. Just like the saying, “One bad apple ruins the whole
Welfare states are a way for the state to establish and finance public utilities, implement and improve a set of social welfare policies and systems, intervene in social and economic life, and ensure the normal operation of social order and economic life. In Schwartz's "History of American Law," the welfare state refers to the historical stage between the Roosevelt New Deal and the outbreak of World War II.
Welfare for the poor means minimal support, degrading, humiliation and continued poverty. On the other hand, welfare for the non-poor provides security and are based on legitimacy. The welfare system does not distribute benefits on the base of need but rather on the basis of legitimacy. Poor people are often view as less legitimate as compare to the non-poor. Furthermore, welfare programs for the poor are labeled and can be seen as disgraceful. As stated in the article there is much degradation and humiliations involved in some poor people’s programs that some try greatly to stay off welfare. Some who are qualified for the programs do not take it due to negative indignity and shame that comes along with it. In comparison to welfare programs for the non-poor much protective language is taken to cover up and camouflaged the wording of the programs. Another, important difference between welfare for the poor and welfare for the non-poor are level of government involved. Welfare programs for the non-poor are federally financed and administered with decisions on eligibility and on levels of support made nationally. Programs for the poor are usually supported by federal funds and administered as local programs. I asked my boyfriend what his thoughts were on social security and welfare he responded that they were two completely different programs .He stated
Welfare program is a good thing for those that are struggling in the community but most of the time, it is being overuse and abuse by those that are greedy. Many says that welfare is a perfect program without any problems, any flaws and it does not have any negative effects on anyone but it is far from that. Frauds are common in the welfare programs. The abuse and misuse of welfare encourage those that do not need the assist to apply for it and receive unnecessary benefits. All these problems effects on the nation and the citizens in a big way.
Merriam Webster defines ‘Welfare system’ as, ” a social system in which a government is responsible for the economic and social welfare of its citizens and has policies to provide free health care, money for people without jobs, etc.; also : a country that has such a system.”