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.
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...earned dollars are not contributing to help the rightful recipients, but instead it is going straight to the pocket of individuals that are abusing the system and could care less about violating the law. Committing any welfare fraud is illegal and whoever chooses to break the law will be punished. “The Department of Human Services (DHS) may hold an administrative hearing, bring criminal charges or ask you to voluntarily sign a disqualification agreement if you are suspected of fraud. You will have to pay DHS back and will also be disqualified from receiving benefits for 1 to 10 years” (“Welfare” 2). Bringing criminal charges on recipients that are misusing and abusing the system is fair. It is a serious matter that needs to be taken seriously. It is stealing from the tax payers and taking away assistance from individuals that doubtlessly need the assistance.
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.
Public assistance such as welfare, food stamps, unemployment, cash aid, and housing assistance, has been put in place for the benefit of American citizens. This has been set-up to help people in their time of need after they have helped other Americans in need. Welfare gets its funds from; you guessed it, hardworking Americans. Whenever a person gets paid, state and federal government takes a percentage out of their check every single time. State taxes are what provide the funding of public assistance. Many people believe this comes down to a more moral issue. People in these programs are getting hard worker’s money; therefore, if you are receiving help, you shouldn’t be involved in criminal actions. Many people are losing jobs in this time of recession which is causing unemployment rates to sky-rocket. This causes public assistance rates to r...
Swan, Richelle S., et al. "The Untold Story of Welfare Fraud." Journal of Sociology & Social
Programs like Unemployment, Medicare, and Social Security increase the number to roughly fifty percent. Granted that some of these programs are paid in programs, the number of people that are relying on government assistance is too high. In total, there are thirteen categories that fall under the title of Welfare (Federal Safety Net). These programs are put into place to provide things like cash, food, housing, medical benefits, social services, child services, and training. The main target of these programs is low-income Americans. Firstly, the unfair distribution of funds is a problem in more than one way. Individuals of families who are in real need may be receiving government assistance, but they would be getting more sufficient help if funds and resources were not so loosely spent. Another way in which funds are being unfairly distributed is the products and services obtained by recipients on welfare
Ronald Reagan once said, “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.” Welfare began as a relief program in the 1930’s to assist those suffering from The Great Depression. In modern times, this system’s abuse rises every year. Social welfare spending causes people to abuse their free money; our government needs to revise the length of time for the benefits and who can receive this money.
It is a commonly known fact that a large percentage of Americans are living on and relying on welfare, which is a government program that provides financial aid to individuals or groups of people who cannot support themselves. Welfare began in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. There are several types of assistance offered by the government, which include healthcare, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing assistance. The type of welfare and amounts given depend on the individual, and how many children they have. There are many people who honestly need the government assistance, but there are also many who abuse the privilege.
Research question: Can something be done to ensure that welfare benefits will be used as intended by the recipients?
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.
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.
45 million Americans with low income rely on at least one of the many welfare programs. Of these government assistance programs, many of them deal with fraud and abuse. “Some cases of government assistance misuse are more blatant than others, but some aid recipients are using sneaky tactics that give other needy Americans a bad reputation” (calonia 1). Clearly, people are abusing the system in order to receive money they do not deserve. This makes it harder for people who need the welfare programs to get the money they need to support a family.
There are 108,592,000 people in the United States on welfare (Snyder). Welfare is not social security, unemployment insurance, veterans’ benefits, or workers compensation (Snyder). People who receive welfare have low motivation and think it is an entitlement. People use excuses to not find an actual job and slowly start to rely on welfare for their overall income (Snyder).
With just food stamps alone, a family of five gets $700 or more a month. However, people who are on food stamps average at least $100 per person alone. Mind you, this is only food stamps. This does not include housing welfare, free college payments, infant assistance, free public schooling, or actual cash from the government. Last year there were a reported 12, 800,000 Americans on welfare. That adds up to a grand total of $131.9 billion dollars used to help them survive. Many people have found it easier to live off of this money rather than go out and get a job. This is known as Abuse of the Welfare System. When I say Abuse of the Welfare System I mean the unlawful use or spending of Governmental funds that are meant to aid those in need.
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.
As the common phrase goes, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Change in the welfare system is a must now more than ever because the government is in such a bad economic state, and it must and should be ensured that the tax payers know exactly where their money is going once those welfare checks are administered. Drug testing is a top priority in welfare reform and it should be; tax payers’ money should not be used for the purchase of illegal substances. The state of Texas and the United States face problems with misuse of welfare funds and there must be a change in the system in order to combat this. The purpose of welfare is to aid those that are in financial need to purchase the essentials required for survival. Individuals receiving welfare should subject to a drug test at any moment to ensure that the assistance they are getting is not misused. There are a number of reasons why the recipients should take a drug test and these are the top three: ensuring that tax payers money is not misused, reduce drug use, and to be fair to the working citizens of America.
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