...Ethical and Legal Concerns Regarding Welfare Reform Daniel Smith Business Law II, Park University Outline Ethical and Legal Concerns Regarding Welfare Reform I. Current House Vote A. Welfare Reform Act of 1996 II. Course of Welfare Reform Act A. Prejudice B. Economy III. What are President and Current Representatives saying regarding Act? A. Are Ethics being utilized properly? IV. Primary Objective of Welfare Reform Act A. Decrease Reliance B. Requirements C. Statistics D. Social Workers Some Democrats believe the 1996 welfare reform is better than the recommendations of the Obama Administration. “The House voted Thursday (September 20, 2012) to block the Obama Administration's unilateral weakening of welfare's work requirements, and political reporters are writing it off as a partisan primal scream if they notice at all.” (Unknown, 2012) All Republicans and nineteen Democrats showed their dislike of the current administrations path down the welfare reform road with an astounding 250-164 rout over welfare reform recommendations. That’s one-tenth of the Democratic caucus joining with the Republicans to say our people need welfare in its current state during these hard economic times. The Reform Act was started during the Clinton Administration in August of 1996. However, welfare has been a controversial issue since the 1960’s. It was not until the late 1980’s, when the citizens...
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...Welfare Reform A number of countries across the globe do have welfare programs, essentially these are government systems aimed at helping families and individuals in need. For instance, America has elaborate systems that aim to offer fairly complete systems, which aid Americans not only in monetarily terms but also through other forms of assistance such as medical care services, and work training programs (Rushefsky, 2013). Consequently, this paper seeks to understand how did the PRWORA Act of 1996 change America's welfare system? Moreover, we shall seek to know how a mandated vocational training or job skills program will help the current system. The success of such welfare systems has been widely studied, monitored intimately, and adjusted accordingly to suite different situations. Thus, the government saw the need to place much emphasis on changing the norm from the “Welfare to Work” ostensibly this was aimed at decreasing overreliance on federal aid (Weil, and Finegold, 2011). This is imperative since welfare programs are the most intricate systems to be rolled out by any government and thus require enormous expenditure in terms of human and financial resources. The other reason is that welfare systems are aimed at providing assistance to the majority poor who are otherwise very needy (Weil, and Finegold, 2011). Thus, any dysfunction of the system can result to great suffering to many citizens; it can also cause immense concern to stakeholders. In the year 1996, the American...
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...1 The Welfare Reform Act Paula Foreman HCR/230 December 9, 2012 Santresa Sanders 2 The Welfare Reform Act caused many existing Medicaid beneficiaries to lose necessary coverage. The delinking of Medicaid to AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) has resulted in the changes in the eligibility requirements to obtain Medicaid benefits. The old format would enable an eligible welfare applicant automatically eligible for Medicaid. Today this is not the case. TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) a new block grant has higher eligibility requirements, therefore resulting in a decrease in people who are now on Medicaid. TANF has put emphasis on diversion and job emphasis which has also steered people away from Medicaid. The economy has made job finding easier. Incomes were raised which led to some applicants and beneficiaries no longer meeting income tests or eligibility requirements for Medicaid. When these changes were made, the number of people on Medicaid decreased greatly resulting in numerous people being ineligible for Medicare or the present recipients losing Medicaid that was necessary to cover their medical expenses due to their medical issues. The changes caught many by surprise Although the Welfare Reform Law does not alter how Medicaid offers health care or it’s entitlement status, it does minimize the number of people covered, thus lowering federal expenditures. Eligible Medicaid candidates...
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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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...Welfare Reform Laura Lee Niehoff POL 201 Instructor: Marion Rogers August 26, 2012 Welfare Reform Government assistance programs have been around for many years. The US welfare program began in the 1930’s during the Great Depression (US Welfare System - Help for US Citizens, 2012). The whole idea behind the welfare program was to give aid to families who had little or no income. The welfare program, in the United States, was originally designed to help provide a minimal level of aid to help maintain the wellbeing of citizens. Previously, the local communities would help the less fortunate. Social groups would give donations of food to struggling families. These groups would also donate clothing and other necessities. Now, the government is the largest provider of these programs. The programs were originally based on helping those unable to work or provide for themselves. Until the 1960’s only disabled, or elderly citizens were qualified to receive aid. Legislation not only changed the recipients eligible for help, but also the help available. Programs such as health care, food stamps, pregnancy assistance, and help for single mothers started to emerge. The next addition to the program was housing benefits. To some, the addition of these new programs made it more enticing to receive aid rather than work. The programs had now become considered easy money. If you were able to show need, you would most likely qualify for benefits. Over the last 80...
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...Work Activation Programs to Reform Welfare Tammy Wooten ITT Technical Institute Work Activation Programs to Reform Welfare In August of 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) (Welfare Reform section, 2010). Before that, federal welfare was an open-ended entitlement that encouraged long-term dependency (See Chart 2). It neither reduced poverty nor helped the poor become self-sufficient. It did however, encourage out-of-wedlock births and weaken the work ethic. The pathologies it engendered were passed from generation to generation. This reform was a step in the right direction, however, much more needs to be done. The next step should be to transfer full responsibility for funding and administering welfare programs to the states. Each state would then have the freedom to innovate their own low-income programs and would cause them to have stronger incentives to reduce taxpayer costs and maximize work requirements (Replacing Welfare with Private Charity section, 2010). The federal government funds an array of subsidy programs for low-income Americans. The two programs that are of the greatest concern to me are food stamps and Medicaid. When most people think of “welfare”, they are usually thinking of the joint federal-state cash assistance program, better known by its most recent name, as TANF or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Overview section, 2010). According to...
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...Welfare in the United States has been under construction since the day it was established and has made a transformation to make every attempt to encourage Americans to seek employment. Throughout U.S. history various programs were developed over time to assist the unemployed or those who were employed but still struggled to make ends meet. Welfare reform refers to efforts made by the government to limit the number of families dependent on public assistance. In limiting the number of families that are dependent on government assistance, changes have been made and continue to be made to meet the needs of the population. From as far back as the early colonial days, laws were established to differentiate those who could work from those who needed...
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...An Economical Examination of Welfare Reform This section details the concept of drug testing as an eligibility requirement for welfare recipients who receive cash under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The economical ramifications that pertain to this situation include the wants and needs of individuals versus the limited resources of the funds by taxpayers. Sources, data, and popular opinion will show that this requirement will be extremely beneficial for the American taxpayers by saving money and refusing to subsidize the drug habits of individuals who receive government assistance. Scarcity In 2011, over 4 million people received cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program (“ACF”, 2011, para. 8). These numbers do not include Food Stamps, Medicaid, or other forms of government funds; this is simple cash assistance. Ideally, all hungry and unemployed individuals would have the resources to provide for themselves and their families. However, in this economic downturn, more and more individuals are reaching out for assistance and it has become taxing on our government resources. In 1997, the U.S. Government overhauled the welfare programs known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), and Emergency Assistance (EA) (“ACF”, 2011, para. 4). Under this reform, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was developed. TANF was designed...
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...Was Welfare Reform the Right Approach to Poverty? Similar to a majority of children I grew up with in my neighborhood, my family had welfare. I, however, was not fully aware of the fact that what we had was any different than anyone else until my early teens. Food stamps, now referred to as the EBT card, is a center of controversy much like the selling of food stamps for cash was, years ago while growing up. Discovering that we were on welfare, and that we received handouts from the Government, became a secretive and embarrassing thing in order to ensure my sister and I to not get picked on within school. Today, neither I nor my younger sister use the Government for assistance in that way. Reading both of these viewpoints brought up valid arguments, however I feel that if I didn’t grow up on assistance from the Government, then it would be harder for me to decide who I side with. I feel that both viewpoints, one over the administration background and its shortcomings, and the other more detailed in what the Government has done to help the new system along, are extremely valid and if they could just both come together on a common ground overall, the outcome could be actual improvement. Menicmer’s account of Leoterra Clark’s life and struggle through the welfare system has a common theme within the Government. The Government has a mindset on doing what is most advantageous to and for the Government and thus the Government will ensure that everything is taken care of for everyone...
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...Children (AFDC) Program with what is now the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The new legislation rolled back much of what the National Welfare Rights Organization and welfare rights activists fought to reform; it deepened the stigma women on welfare face by actively but subtly targeting poor women of color. A reactionary response to the growing number of “undeserving” women of color and immigrants on the welfare role, PRWORA calls for stricter eligibility requirements and ultimately aims to reduce TANF’s total recipient pool...
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...Social policies and public reform have been consistently at the forefront of American minds. Welfare reform has been a major controversy in the realm of social policy. Most Americans support the idea of equality, one of the values that our nation was founded on, although there seems to be no general agreement on how the government should alleviate poverty. The American welfare system as it is in its present state degrades the beneficiaries and serves to enrich the administrators. If the objective is to reduce poverty and promote self-sufficiency then the right signals are given off but the system is failing in practice. The key to reforming would be to combine work with education and training to help attain skills to increase beyond an entry-level position. To fully reform, the government must integrate developmental efforts in the welfare, work force, education and economic development area in an effort to create a stronger state and move people out of poverty and into self-sufficiency. Welfare was introduced in 1936 under a program entitled Aid to Dependent Children and it provided cash for low-income families with children. The number of people in the household and the total monthly income was the determining factor of an individual’s eligibility. For a household consisting of 4 people, if the income were less than $643, then you would be eligible. Recipients were required to enroll in an Employment First course that taught educational, social and work ethics to move individuals...
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...WELFARE REFORM: The Welfare Reform is one of the most important issues in America today that often gets pushed to the side. I picked this topic because I believe it is something that eventually involves everyone. It is also something, in which seems that the government can not decide on one plan for. It’s always changing. It almost seems as though every president has a new plan for the Welfare program. While growing up in a poor neighborhood and having been raised by a single parent on welfare, many of these issues are important for me to understand and learn about them. It is a better way to understand and come up with ideas to help it. In 1996 congress passed and the president signed the “Personal Responsibility and work opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996” which drastically changed the welfare system. This welfare reform helped to move 4.7 million people who were government funding dependents to self sufficient in just three years. Since 1996 welfare cases have declined by 54%. The reform then expired and current president, President Bush, was trying to continue the success of this welfare reform. President Bush’s proposal was to make welfare more focused on the well being of children and families. He was trying to make it so that families that receive welfare could eventually be self sufficient. The president’s plan also plans to increase work resources for families. The reform also helps pay for childcare, that is funded with the “Childcare Development Fund”. It...
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...What do you consider the most important historical event in the history of the human services profession? Why? I believe the most important history event in the history of the human services profession is the Welfare Reform Act. These living benefits could involve general and special payments for certain circumstances (e.g. young mothers and pregnant women), food stamps, and Medicaid health care and housing benefits. I would also go out on a limb and say that Welfare Assistance reduces the crime rate. If the person’s needs are being met (food, clothing, shelter), there is no need to shoplift, rob, committing additional crimes. However, this is where the reform comes in. The way our welfare programs are currently run there is a huge and lack of accountability of where the money is being allocated, and it doesn’t seem be flowing smoothly. It’s ruining the chance for the very people it’s supposed to help, and providing short-comings in the process. We need to tighten up the process if there is an individual that is able to work and received government assistance, either work, prepare for work or at least be looking for a job. I believe our Welfare Receipts are becoming too dependent on their government paychecks. This assistance is used as a temporary measurement, but you will find people who have been receiving government assistance for 20 plus years. When you are out of the workforce for a number of years, your skills sets start to diminish, any valuable training...
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...It seem they explain the thoughts of people who are on welfare and how it is the composed way to live. Although, many liberals do not like the new program but there are not many people welfare. It does not say that they are ok before welfare. The text also state citizens employed and parents are not spending really any time with their young ones and more than half of the parent jobs offer no health insurance. It seems to me that conformists hides the truth containing...
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...The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was passed by Congress, and it provides Medicaid, food stamps, and enforcement of child support. And many other provisions Eligible recipients for this bill satisfy this criteria: you must have a dependent child that lives with you, have certain types of deprivation requirements (such as an absent parent. And provide proof of financial need and meet certain federal and state requirements. Still, the Welfare Reform Act has change several times in American history. For instance, in 1935, welfare was a system of open-ended government payments targeted towards single mothers with dependent children; then In the 1960’s, the welfare program was expanded as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and sought to help poor, disenfranchised Americans; Lastly, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Reconciliation Act of 1996, which did indeed usher in a new approach to welfare for the most prominent of all welfare programs, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).” In this Act are lot of provisions that I will discuss below and regarding the impact of these provisions on the greater American society. Provision I of the bill provides Medicaid. Medicaid in 1996 required states to provide Medicaid to families who would be eligible for AFDC. Medicaid provides coverage for people with lower incomes, older people with disabilities, and some families and children. Medicaid commonly covers services such as prescription drugs, prosthetic...
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