Since the enactment of the Welfare Reform Act in 1996; the new changes have been instrumental in decreasing the number of welfare caseloads and unemployment rates. Many would argue that the reforms for welfare have not been active in requiring that welfare recipients improve their education, skills and job market ability. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program requires welfare recipients to search for a job first in exchange for cash assistance and other welfare benefits. It is also recommended that those who have not earned their high school diploma or equivalent return to school or training program to complete their diplomas while collecting welfare benefits. Welfare recipients are exempt from the time limitation or work requirements only if they are full-time students. This exemption is only valid for 24 months in most states. This time frame is enough time to complete an Associate degree, post-secondary training or career goals in order to qualify for better paying jobs; however they should be allotted more time to complete their high school and some college education.
According to the National Centers for Education Statistics, the annual income for young adults between the ages of 25-34 working full time with a bachelor’s degree earned $45,000; with an associate degree the income was $37,000. The median income for those with a high school diploma or GED was $30,000, while those without it earned $22,900. The goal for all welfare recipients should be to use the time wisely while they are collecting benefits to improve their skills and education so that they qualify for a job that will support their families without a need for assistance from the state welfare system. Studies have shown that obtaining a co...
... middle of paper ...
...dvantage of all the programs and opportunities available through the welfare system. Allowing the parents to succeed in life allows the child to follow suit. Most importantly, if the parents lead a productive and purpose driven life, the child will view his or her parent as role models whom they will seek to emulate.
Works Cited
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). The Condition of Education 2013 (NCES 2013–037), Annual Earnings of Young Adults.
Hamilton, Gayle, and Judith M. Gueron. "The Role of Education and Training in Welfare Reform." The Brookings Institution. Brookings, 1 Apr. 2002. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"Types of Programs." Types of Programs. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Pear, Robert. "Clinton Hears Success Stories of Ex-Welfare Recipients." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Aug. 1999. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Welfare can be defined as “systems by which government agencies provide economic assistance, goods, and services to persons who are unable to care for themselves” (Issitt). The United States welfare system is an extremely complex and unique entity that encompasses ideas and concepts from an abundance of different places. Many people believe the current system is an excellent resource for the population, while others believe the current welfare system requires reform and budget cuts to become effective.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 fundamentally changed the cash welfare system in the United States. It cancelled Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) plan, replacing it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It abolished the entitlement status of welfare, provided states with strong incentives to impose time limits, and tied funding levels to the states’ success in moving welfare recipients into work. It is well known that caseloads plummeted during the 1990s and that employment rates of single mothers--the primary recipients of welfare in the United States—rose almost as fast (Shipler).
As of 1996, state and local governments were asked to assist many people in gaining their independence after the reform was enacted. (“Welfare Reform”) It is vital to the economy of the United States citizens to have the ability to support themselves as well as their families with no help from the government. Protecting all children and strengthening families were important parts of the reform measure. (“Welfare Reform”) The Welfare Reform Agenda of 2003 was built on the bases of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. The goals of 2003 were to assist families in achieving financial independence from the government. (“Welfare Reform”) The 2003 agenda imposed a lifetime of 5 years of welfare benefits. (“Revisiting Reform”) The agenda also required able bodied adults must go to work within two years of receiving help from the government. (“Revisiting Reform”) Welfare reform can be described as a governments attempt to alter the welfare policy of the
Welfare assistance itself is provided from monies managed by a federally funded program that provides health care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment benefits, cash aid, and housing to citizens in need. It is categorized the governmental umbrella of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). According to Welfare Information, eligibility is determined by net income, family size, and any crisis situation such as: pregnancy, homelessness, or unemployment (2014). TANF also requires the recipient to obtain employment within two years of rec...
Cottle, Michelle. “Reforming Welfare Reform.” Washington Monthly 28.11 (1996): 9. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Since the Welfare reform law was introduced in 1996 it has impacted American society greatly. The new welfare policy, named the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), replaced the Aid to Family and Dependent Children (AFDC) program; they have five known differences that only affect the ones who need the assistance. Critics argue that the TANF has negatively impacted the society while some argue that it has not. Linda Burnham, author of “Welfare Reform, Family Hardship & Woman of Color,” asserts that “welfare reform has increased the hardship faced by many women leaving welfare for work and their movement into low-wage jobs, exposes them to higher level of housing insecurities, homelessness, food insecurity, and hunger.” She also argues that women of color “are especially vulnerable to the negative impact of welfare reform” (38).
Welfare reform system was kicked off with the Personal Responsibility and Work opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. This heralded a new era in which welfare recipients were required to look for work as a condition of receiving benefits. Originally, the welfare system was created to help the poor, who were in need of financial and medical support. Over the years, welfare has become a way of life for its recipients and has created a culture of dependency. The welfare reform system is in the process of being repaired or reformed. The
A high school education is no longer sufficient to succeed in America’s increasingly complex economy. However, because of the high price point of a college education, far too many Americans are unable to afford education beyond high school. As shown in the graph below, the higher level of education received greatly increases the chances for employment and also dramatically increases the average salary potential of an individual.
From 1990 to the present, government welfare such as income assistance and food stamps have aided the unemployed, the ill, and the broken families of America, but government assistance greatly affects the myth that hard work is the only pathway to success, and welfare provides many negative, as well as positive impacts to society. In the United States, many different welfare systems offer a wide range of benefits including money and food stamps to a variety of people. Plagued with economic issues and a shrinking middle class, the poorest Americans keep getting poorer, and the door seems to be shutting more and more on the opportunity to rise above their impoverished roots. Welfare aims to provide aid to those poor Americans who need an extra boost to keep up and help them in achieving the sought after “American Dream.” According to the US Committee of the Budget: House of Representatives, “There are at least 92 federal programs designed to help lower-income Americans. For instance, there are dozens of education and job-training programs, 17 different food-aid programs, and over 20 housing programs. The federal government spent $799 billion on these programs in fiscal year 2012”. Welfare also greatly affects a large number of the United States’ population, and as Robert Rector states in the article “Spiraling State of Welfare Spending,” “Roughly 100 million people- one-third of the United States population- received at least one means-tested welfare program each month (Feulner). Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provides cash assistance for families with children in need. TANF was created after the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was instituted in 1996 under President Bill Clinton. PRWORA aimed ...
There have been numerous debates within the last decade over what needs to be done about welfare and what is the best welfare reform plan. In the mid-1990s the TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Act was proposed under the Clinton administration. This plan was not received well since it had put a five year lifetime limit on receiving welfare and did not supply the necessary accommodations to help people in poverty follow this guideline. Under the impression that people could easily have found a job and worked their way out of poverty in five years, the plan was passed in 1996 and people in poverty were immediately forced to start looking for jobs. When the TANF Act was up for renewal earlier this year, the Bush administration carefully looked at what the TANF Act had done for the poverty stricken. Bush realized that, in his opinion, the plan had been successful and should stay in effect with some minor tweaking. Bush proposed a similar plan which kept the five year welfare restriction in place but did raise the budgeted amount of money to be placed towards childcare and food stamps. Both the TANF Act and Bush's revised bill have caused a huge controversy between liberal and conservative activists. The liberals feel that it is cruel to put people in a situation where they can no longer receive help from the government since so many people can not simply go out and get a job and work their way out of poverty. They feel if finding a job was that easy, most people would have already worked their way out of poverty. The conservatives feel that the plans, such as the TANF Act, are a surefire way to lower poverty levels and unemployment rates as well as decrease the amount o...
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...
“Welfare Can Not End Cycle Of Poverty In U.S.” UWIRE Text 13 Nov. 2014: 1. General Onefile. Web. 25 Sept.
People with various degrees are finding it harder to get jobs where they would like to work. Even the increased rate of layoffs for the Tech industry, which usually include packages for an estimated amount of time off, has risen as well. There are programs that assist these situations such as welfare. “The Welfare Act of 1996 was designed to move people from welfare to jobs. According to a letter to the Chicago Tribune, once they got jobs, they lost public assistance,” said Arloa Sutter, executive director of Breakthrough Urban Ministries. She has firsthand knowledge about the struggle of homelessness because she runs two Chicago homeless shelters. Then, when they lose the jobs they once had, they find it difficult to qualify for the assistance they need again under the new regulations that have been put in place. People who are considered the “lower-class” are not the people to be worried about, even though they may seem to be more prone to poverty in their lives. These individuals still have the availability of all the services and programs which allow them to get help. The “middle-class” people are expected to be closer to poverty because they are said to make too much money. The amount that is required for financial aid in college is below $10,000 annually, but by then the person is already expected to be homeless and in debt on that salary. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
“In Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., welfare pays more than a $20-an-hour job, and in five additional states it yields more than a $15-per-hour job” (Tanner). Some jobs like police officers or elementary schools starting salary is less than a 15 dollar an hour job so when the two are compared, it does not make sense for people to want to risk thier life or struggle to teach kids that plan to live like their parents off the welfare system and do not see any necessity in learning, when the government will give the same amount of money or more for doing
Schwarz, J. E. (1990). WELFARE LIBERALISM, SOCIAL POLICY, AND POVERTY IN AMERICA. Policy Studies Review, 10(1), 127-139.