...According to welfareinfo.org, Welfare in the United States can cover 100% of monthly utility costs and child support for those who qualify. So what is the catch? Every family who does not need the welfare pays for the welfare. Welfare is a vicious cycle that must reform in order to provide benefits for not only those receiving it, but also those providing for it. For starters, the welfare system encourages dependence rather than serving as an opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty. When I was in middle school, I had a teacher who told everyone in the class to rewrite an entire packet of notes. At the end of class, the bell rang, and I proudly pushed my packet to the side of the desk, as I, along with a select few students, had finished...
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...induction during the Great Depression, the American welfare system has aided poor and low-income Americans within our nation, giving them opportunities that beforehand would have been impossible. With nearly 1 trillion spent on programs associated with welfare (excluding Social Security, Medicare, or Unemployment Insurance), its continuation for these Americans is vital. However, in recent years, this system has become more abused by those benefiting from it with many stating that a number of welfare recipients are not self-sufficient and misuse their funds on drug use and other auxiliaries. Even Franklin D. Roosevelt—the enactor of these welfare programs—warned of their potential misuse. “The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence...
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...Social Welfare: Pros and Cons Melissa Pugh Post University Online Social Welfare: Pros and Cons The ever-winding tendrils of hardship are impacting individuals who through the ups and downs of life; have become disabled, unemployed, or perhaps senior citizens. Social welfare is available for those who may find themselves in these unfortunate positions. While working at a Milwaukee University, Julia Doyle’s mother was killed by a senseless drunk-driving accident in 1990. Driven by determination, Doyle saw to it that justice was served however this required many requests for leave and because of this; she was terminated although she had invested ten years at the university. Julia Doyle went on to have a total of three children with little or no support from the father; deprived of many necessities, she became a recipient of welfare. She also admits to drug usage during her fall from grace. Nevertheless, for many, social welfare provokes dependency and others like Julia Doyle (Pomeroy, 2008) utilized its benefits to gain a life of financial stability. According to Flynn (2013), “Welfare is a term used to describe systems by which government agencies provide economic assistance, goods, and services to persons who are unable to care for themselves. Welfare is a form of social policy. Welfare programs serve as social safety nets.” Provision is made for member via social policy, social programs, and welfare enterprises. Upon the transfer of...
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...Some have argued that social welfare should be about promoting recipient wellbeing. However, others have argued that in recent times welfare programs are more about controlling the behaviour of welfare recipients. This essay will examine the history of welfare programs to women since the initiation of the post-war welfare state under Labour Prime Minister Chifley to ascertain whether recent development in these programs are more about providing for recipient’s wellbeing or rather about trying to make them comply with certain standards of accepted behaviour. Chifley argued that it was the “duty and responsibility of the community, and particularly those more fortunately placed, to see that our less fortunate fellow citizens are protected from those shafts of fate which leave them helpless and without hope”. He continued the labour movement would fight to ensure a future “free from want, insecurity and misery” (Chifley, quoted in Beilharz, 1994). Chifley was stating that those in need should be the recipients of welfare without them having to comply with any requirements to perform to certain behavioural standards. This approach set the scene for the expansion of the welfare state from the post-war period through its expansion in the Whitlam years until its principles were challenged by the Howard Government in the 1990s. During this time welfare benefits grew and were extended to new groups of people considered in need. The labour party supported the notion of deservedness...
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...Academic year 2014-2015 Migration towards Europe and the “welfare magnet”: “Determinants of Turkish Migration to EU-15” Master dissertation Student Kristýna Jedličková Home institution Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze Supervisor prof. Claire Naiditch Submission date September 2015 Acknowledgment I would like to express my sincerest thanks to prof. Claire Naiditch for her guidance, support, patience and valuable recommendations. Declaration of authorship I, Kristýna Jedličková hereby declare that the thesis Migration towards Europe and the “welfare magnet” was written by myself and that all presented results are my own, unless stated otherwise. The literature sources are listed in the Literature Review section. Prague, September 30th, 2015 ........................................................ Signature Key words Migration, welfare magnet, public social spending, inflows of migrants, EU’s migratory policy, European welfare system, Turkish welfare system, Turkey, EU-15, gravity model, fixed effect, random effect, Hausman test, country specific fixed effect, time specific fixed effect. Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to analyse which factors drive migration from Turkey towards Europe and whether the welfare benefits play a major role in the decision making process. The analysis is based on a gravitation model of migration in log-log form. The FE and RE methods were employed as estimation techniques and the Hausman test enabled to distinguish them. The present...
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...The Welfare Reform Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August22; 1996. Other government assisted programs with different guidelines were replaced by The Welfare Reform Act. The eligibility guidelines for The Welfare Reform Act were somewhat stricter than other government assisted programs that made it more difficult for some individuals to qualify. A reduction in welfare fraud has been achieved through The Welfare Reform Act that is due to the responsibility the individual on welfare must exhibit. The individual enrolled in a government program has the responsibility to inform the government or state agency of any household changes such as household size or a reduction or increase in income. These household changes must be reported to the agency as soon as they occur. This requirement increases the amount of responsibility required of the program participant; if these changes are not reported as soon as they are known, the individual may lose his or her benefits. A cap was placed on the length of time an individual may receive benefits on the program as well as the amount of cash assistance he or she is allowed to receive (Ku & Coughlin, 2010). The Welfare Reform Act also places great emphasis on the importance of individuals enrolled in a government or state assistance program involvement in job activities. It is a requirement that the individual actively seek gainful employment or participate in job training. An individual has a right to...
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...“A Closer Look at Changes to Welfare Reform” “A Closer Look at Changes to Welfare Reform” Welfare is a defined as a term characterizing the wide variety of social programs developed during the New Deal to help the poor , unemployed, disabled, and elderly. There have many changes to the programs and the laws that govern them. After living in Missouri for most of my life and then moving to Texas, I have noticed many differences. Welfare is a term I heard a lot as child. Obviously, I never knew what it was until I was older. When I hear the word, I think of hearing people waiting to receive their “check” at the beginning of the month. I always saw it as something negative because I grew up knowing that you were supposed to work, not rely on a handout. Now that I’m a bit older, I understand that sometimes you need to have a bit of assistance during hard times. The term welfare not only refers to cash benefits, but also programs such as food stamps and medicaid. Food stamps, which are also referred to as supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP benefits, were established in 1939. This is a program that provides financial assistance to low income families to purchase food for their household. Medicare is another form of welfare. It is a program that helps low income families receive healthcare. Qualified participants in the medicaid program include low-income adults, their children, and people with some disabilities. Unfortunately, poverty alone does not...
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...Welfare programs in USA Abstract This research will provide information regarding basic welfare programs in USA. Welfare state is a government that provides for the total well-beeing of its citizens and is akin to socialism. However, very few true welfare states exist. The United States is a good example of this as it provides some social insurance or entitlement programs to its citizens but does not espouse socialism. As socialism and democracy cannot go hand in hand, therefore, it is impossible for the United States to be one of the true welfare states. The United States does make efforts to provide for persons in need through a myriad of social service programs known as welfare. Welfare encompasses those government programs that provide benefits and economic assistance to no or low income Americans. It can also be defined as financial assistance to impoverished Americans which is supplied through the taxes paid by the working class. One of the main goals of welfare programs in USA is to improve the quality of life and living standards for the poor and underprivileged. Welfare help is usually extended to people groups other than just the poor and underprivileged such as the elderly, the disabled, students, and unpaid workers, such as mothers and caregivers Welfare programs available in the United States include: Medicaid, Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Head Start...
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...Welfare Programs Social programs in the United States are welfare subsidies designed to aid the needs of the American population. Social programs raise the standard of living for low-income earning Americans, particularly the elderly, by a large amount. The poorest 20% of American households earn a yearly average of only $7,600 before taxes- less than half of the federal poverty line. Social programs increase those households' before-tax income to $30,500. Programs like cash payments and in-kind benefits, programs that are “means tested”, and provided by the government, are responsible for two-thirds of that increase. In-kind benefits, benefits paid to individuals by federal or state governments, provide individuals with vouchers for things they need. Unlike cash transfers, these benefits are not paid directly in cash, but offer goods or services for free or at a reduced rate. Because in-kind benefits must be used for specific things, they can force individuals to take advantage of things that they need, instead of things they want. An example of this type of benefit are food...
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...When welfare is better than working The issue I am choosing to address in this essay is the Governments welfare program. Welfare in the United States commonly refers to the federal government welfare programs that have been put in place to assist the unemployed or underemployed. Help is extended to the poor through a variety of government welfare programs that include Medicaid, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). A number of government agencies were created to oversee the welfare programs. Some of the agencies that deal with welfare in the United States are the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education. Welfare history continued to be made in 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Under the act, the federal government gives annual lump sums to the states to use to assist the poor. In turn the states must adhere to certain criteria to ensure that those receiving aid are being encouraged to move from welfare to work. Though some have criticized the program, many acknowledge it has been successful. With that being said, I understand that sometimes, people are destitute. They need help, and they accept help from the state in order to feed their families. This is fine. It happens. I’m not against temporary...
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...for without our health, we are all but useless. In this essay I seek to examine the benefits of the public healthcare system over it’s private counterpart, not only in Canada, but any country attempting to utilize their society to the fullest. I will argue that the welfare-state liberalistic approach is much better because it seeks to pool the resources of the many and regulate/distribute it to the few in dire need, hopefully resulting in a diminishing number of sick and homeless. I begin my essay by highlighting the importance and function of both the welfare state liberalist’s public heath care and the neoconservative private health care. My argument stands on the grounds that public healthcare in Canada is more tenable because it works for the common good of all people, regardless of socioeconomic class while also placing a primary focus on efficiency, instead of profitability. A viable counterargument is that most working people do not find it ‘fair’ to have their hard-earned money taken to support the lazy or poor(welfare), although in reality the vast majority of these ‘lazy’ poor people or those outside of a private healthcare system are not in the position out of free will. As we examine the positives and negatives of both systems it becomes increasingly apparent that as empathetic humans we all have a right to health and to equal opportunity to play our part in society. The welfare-state liberalist view, at its core, is a government that plays a pivotal role in the...
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...that even though people are willing and able to work they are unable to find paid work. Unemployment is a very concerning economic and social issue affecting the UK today and historically. According to the office national statistics, UK unemployment has increased from 7000 to 2.56 million. This particularly consists of youth unemployment, such as graduates and youths aged 17 plus who now rate at 21.2% of the unemployment rate, and women whose unemployment has also increased (BBC, 2013). As Beveridge states the population of those unemployed were supported through the ‘cradle of the grave’ suggesting that the government was giving unending unemployment benefits regardless of whether the population were actively seeking work. Unemployment policy regarding the workfare gained foothold after WW2 with the emergence of the welfare state. Today this is still the main policy for supporting the unemployed population of Britain. Those out of work now need to show that they are actively seeking work and gaining work experience and skills to make them more employable in the future. As mentioned above, unemployment is a social and economic issue. There are many factors as to why unemployment exists, and why it fluctuates in society. Mainly there are internal and external reasons for this. Internally factors such as education, illness and family can cause unemployment, but also, one can debate more importantly factors such as economic...
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...Drug Testing Welfare Recipients It is assumed by many that people who are receiving public assistance funds are using this money to support their alcohol and or drug addictions. Is drug testing to receive public assistance an answer to this problem? Would making this a condition of eligibility actually push people with serious substance abuse and or dependency problems farther away from the help and treatment they need? Federal Welfare Reform The Federal Welfare reform act which, was passed in the mid 1990’s has changed the way our system addresses these issues. PRWORA (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act) provided some distinctive features to address the issues, and changed the idea that there was universal entitlement for all, and helped to reinforce the notion that there is a class of the deserving poor. In 2001 California implemented the policies required and created our version of the TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) called Cal-WORKS (California’s Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program.) This program has allowed for rules to be implemented such as time limits, work requirements and the availability of substance abuse treatment. (Newell, 2011) The population and the substances. According to the National Poverty Center (2004) the numbers have been overstated and the number of people that are on welfare and are abusing substances are lower than originally estimated. The studies have varied widely in their...
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...director at the Department for Work and Pensions. Concern was expressed that Ingeus had underbid more experienced providers: price was a clinching factor in the official scoring system, whereas bizarrely previous performance was not scored at all. 2: The greatly disappointed voluntary sector will be relegated to sub-contracting. The big companies will hand down their difficult cases, such as addicts, ex-prisoners or the mentally ill – creaming 20%-30% off the top in "management fees" 3: Among the winners is A4E (Action for Employment) – hardly surprising as its founder, Emma Harrison CBE, was named by David Cameron as his workless families tsar. As the Observer revealed, she and her husband have a joint income of some £1.4m from their welfare-to-work empire. 4: The verdict was pretty damning. Not only did contracted companies miss their targets by miles – but the DWP's own Jobcentre Plus outscored them easily. The committee's report is remarkably trenchant: " The performance by the mainly private-sector providers was universally poor … £94m was spent on employment support that did not deliver additional jobs … Private providers have seriously underperformed against their contracts and their success rates are worse than Jobcentre Plus even though private contractors work in easier areas." Despite that, the clamour has begun for jobcentres to be outsourced to private companies. That would put a stop to embarrassing comparisons between the two sectors. There...
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...Nations are maintaining a variety of welfare programs to rule out the effects of poverty today. In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is designed to end hunger and improve the health of many low-income families. In addition, this program fights malnutrition and ensures the family to maintain a healthy diet. However, this program is beneficial for some families, yet it has its flaws. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program should consider altering its program requirements and monitor the people who apply for it. Although the benefits of SNAP are admirable, I believe the laws behind the program must be altered. Families accepted for the assistance are not drug tested, but I believe they should be. As an employee at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, I experience many men and women coming in and purchasing their food while they are under the influence of marijuana. Standing at the end of my register, I watch families come in, fill their buggies up with name brand food, and utilize their Nutritional Assistance benefits. Although SNAP was designed for the low-income families to maintain a healthy diet, junk food is the only thing that their benefits are used for. The SNAP should emphasize the rule of healthy eating (Are)....
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