Title
Welfare Fraud: Betting Against the Odds
Introduction
The issue that I have decided to address is welfare abuse. I propose that due to the government’s lack of foresight, welfare recipients have been cashing EBT benefits at ATM machines in California casino’s.
Research question: Can something be done to ensure that welfare benefits will be used as intended by the recipients?
Readers: Mainly Californian tax payers, but in a broader sense it could be anyone who is concerned about the welfare system, including recipients. This topic addresses the needs of the taxpayers to be informed about what is happening to their tax dollars going into the TANF program. At this time I am focusing on California, but I may include Oregon, or some other states when relevant. This issue explores core values of honesty and integrity.
Review of Literature
My first source of reference is an article that I read in the Los Angeles Times. The article is titled, “Welfare Abuse Review Ordered.” This article went on to describe a current issue in California that affects the taxpayers. For at least eight years now, welfare benefits have been withdrawn from casino ATM machines. It is the unstated warrant in this article that being allowed to cash benefits from casino ATM’s will result in welfare recipients gambling with that money. At this time Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order requiring welfare recipients to promise to use cash benefits as intended for basic subsistence needs only. This led me to research other sources from the LBCC library. I checked out books about the welfare system, welfare reform, casinos, American Indian reservation casinos, and gambling addiction. I found these sources use...
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...uly 20 Revision, edit
July 21 Bring printed copies to class
July 23-25 Final revisions, finish draft, review
July 26 Turn in final draft
Working Bibliography
I have chosen to use the MLA style because as a writer I believe that it will be most relevant to my work. I am putting it on the last page to use for my final bibliography when revised and due.
Dolan, Jack. “Welfare Abuse Review Ordered.” Los Angeles Times 25 June 2010, Late Extra ed.: AA1. Print.
Gimlin, Hoyt, ed. America’s Needy Care and Cutbacks. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1984. Print.
Haugen, David M., ed. Legalized Gambling. Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale, 2006. Print.
Streissguth, Tom. Welfare and Welfare Reform. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2009. Print.
Doak, Melissa J., Gambling: What’s at Stake?. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2009. Print.
Issitt, Micah, L. Flynn. "Welfare: An Overview." Points Of View: Welfare (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 5 Jan. 2014.
It seems like the Welfare system treats its recipients with disrespect and shame to discourage them from joining the system. The people who made and run Welfare in the 1990s made Welfare into a blame game and forces recipients to solely blame themselves for their poverty. The moral prescriptions in individually getting rid of poverty according to TANF are the Work Plan/Family Plan. The focuses on work and family are contradictory because of how little time there is to get both goals done and each goal perpetuates the idea that it is the most important part of ending poverty. It seems like Welfare is more about getting people off of Welfare than eradicating poverty. There is a difference in the goals and that is reflected in how the recipients are treated and how Welfare is run.
O?Beirne, Kate. ?The State of Welfare: An old and tricky question resurfaces.? National Review 54.2 (February 11, 2002): 1--2. Online. Information Access Expanded
Murray, Sara. “Numbers On Welfare See Sharp Increase.” The Wall Street Journal. 22 Jun. 2009. 20 May. 2012.
Hoberock, Barbara. “Senate panel OKs bill to test welfare recipients for drugs.” Tulsa World(ok) [Serial on the Internet]. Newspaper Source. 04 Feb. 2010. Web. 4 Feb. 2011.
Morrison , B. (2011). Innocent: Confession of a Welfare Mother . (1st ed.). Baltimore,MD: Apprentice House
In today’s America, there are many people who would either be disgusted at the very mention of Welfare or be highly grateful for its existence. I believe that in order for welfare to be more effective in America, there must be reform. From the time of its inceptions in 1935, welfare has lent a helping hand to many in crisis (Constitution Rights Foundation). However, at present many programs within the system are being abused and the people who are in real need are being cheated out of assistance. The year after the creation of welfare unemployment was just about twenty percent (Unemployment Statistics). The need for basic resources to survive was unparallel. Today, many people face the same needs as many did during the 30s. Some issues with
Walters, Jonathan. Should Welfare Recipients Be Drug Tested? 13 March 2012. Web. 8 Jan. 2014
Welfare Recipients-False Positives, False Negatives, Unanticipated Opportunities. Women’s Health Issues, Vol. 12(1), pp. 23-31, Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1049-3867(01)00139-6
Being raised in a single-parent lower class home, I realize first-hand the need for welfare and government assistance programs. I also realize that the system is very complex and can become a crutch to people who become dependent and complacent. As a liberal American I do believe that the government should provide services to the less fortunate and resources to find work. However, as able-bodied citizens we should not become complacent with collecting benefits and it is the government’s job to identify people who take advantage of the system and strip benefits from people who are not making efforts to support themselves independently. I will identify errors that exist within the welfare system and several policy recommendations to implement a change that will counteract the negative conditions that currently exist.
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.
Downs-Whitelaw, S., Moore, E., &McFadden, E. J. (2009). Child welfare and family services: Policies and practice, USA: Parson Education Inc.
Downs, S., Moore, E., McFadden, E., & Costin, L. (2004). Child welfare and family services: Policies and practice. (7th. Ed., pp. 319-363) Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
We have also addressed the issue of welfare by requiring that all able-bodied welfare recipients work for their benefits, thereby lessening the financial burden carried by American taxpayers since welfare recipients are now forced to be more responsible for their own livelihood. Welfare is no longe...
...hose that need them it is impossible. If the government is going to provide things it needs money to do so, and where does that money come from, taxes. Therefore the medication, housing, food and other benefits allotted to those on the welfare system are paid for by masses who actually do work and make something of themselves. Those receiving those benefits either don’t see or don’t care about the cost it puts on the rest of society, and fall into the hole of letting life come to you on the silver platter at the cost of someone else. Hard work is something considered antique, a thing of our grandparents with too many willing to forsake it for a life that isn’t of the highest quality but is of the lowest effort. The rise of the welfare state spells the end of America as we know it, the end of the “land of opportunity” and the beginning of the land of poverty.