Welfare policy includes relief systems like TANF and SNAP benefits intend to help families in times of need when they struggle to provide for their families basic needs. TANF and SNAP are programs help families sustain a daily lifestyle that cover things such as food assistance, rent assistance, and cash assistance. For example, when a family finds themselves suddenly without income, they may apply for these programs and if they meet a certain criteria they will receive assistance from the federal government to help obtain their basic needs. It goes without saying that there is extreme controversy when discussing a state of need for welfare for families. When policy of welfare is created it is intended to help the greater portion of people …show more content…
suffering from poverty; however it always comes with unintended consequences that couldn’t be understood, or perceived, during the drafting and implementing of a policy. TANF varies heavily from SNAP.
SNAP provides food assistance only. There is absolutely no legal way to obtain cash from the program. There is a card given to the beneficiary and they must swipe it at a purchase of food in order to receive the benefit. SNAP benefits do not have a time constraint and could arguably be a lifelong process as long as a person stays within criteria to receive it. TANF seeks to provide a more cash flow assistance for other things that are not food, like rent and other bills. TANF is intended for emergency situations and short term issues because there is a 5 year lifelong cap on receiving the benefits. TANF arguably aligns more with a process of uplifting people out of poverty, rather than perpetuating it. For the most part of discussions, both policies are lumped together under a very broad term of welfare and are sometimes …show more content…
misunderstood. These two welfare policies intend to slow the process and hinder the effects of poverty. Poverty affects all races, ages, genders, and lifestyles. It can range from happening in an instant to anyone or it can be a lifelong struggle. One can lose their job and not be able to food on the table or pay for the roof they have been providing. Some people are born into a cycle of poverty, in which they struggle to overcome until the day they leave the earth. Statistics have shown that poverty effects education, health, worldview, and crime. Poverty in its most extremes leads people to do very illegal and dangerous means to provide. Drug dealing and prostitution are heavily discussed in the extreme poverty topic. It is proven that graduation rates are lower in districts and counties with more poverty. It truly is our nation’s biggest issue and for many years has demanded America’s attention. Essentially the idea of welfare is to bring about a very liberal thought that everyone should have a sustainable living and that they may eat and provide for their families.
A lot of people may agree with this and a lot do not. Some believe everyone should work for anything they receive; it should never just be given. Under this thought process, tax payer money should only go to a deserving poor versus a lazy poor who just live off the system. Defining both the deserving and undeserving is hard and varies by person, making welfare a very undefined and gray topic where policy cannot be easily be revised or renewed. A major issue alignes with SNAP benefits alone. While it is illegal to turn SNAP benefits into cash to buy other things, like drugs or alcohol, people have found a way to do this. It is a heavy misuse of the system and it really helps to support the thought process that people only misuse
welfare. Beneficiaries that receive TANF or SNAP are often the ones who truly benefit. It is arguable that they benefit very much because they sometimes do not receive enough, or lack the skills to manage what they do get. It is overall a safer environment for everyone as well when welfare exists. If people who have hit rock bottom and feel lost receive the most minuscule amount of help they are less likely to revolt. This creates a safer society and therefore makes everyone a gainer of the policy. However, overall the beneficiaries are the biggest gainers of the programs, which is the intention. The major “losers” and people most affected are taxpayers and the programs itself. Taxpayers supply the income to the federal government who budgets the money and grants the money to these programs. Programs then follow criteria and enforce the rules when distributing the money. If the benefits are misused and not properly managed, both the taxpayers and the programs experience a loss due to the nature of the process. Society is also negatively affected because a very dim light is shed on welfare and a misunderstanding easily occurs. This creates an overall negative feeling for people who are on welfare and a very negative culture around the topic. Overall, the SNAP and TANF benefits truly help many families. There will always be people who abuse any system created and misuse any benefits that can be received. In the intention to end poverty, I begin to ask the question of whether it’s enough. There is an overall disregard of person in environment theory when it poverty is discussed. We expect people to overcome and achieve with the minimum possible to keep them alive. People truly strive through relationships and feeling needed and loved. If our system focused more on and increase in funding to achieve more time with families to better understand their situation and an overall shift into preventing poverty then treating it, then I believe we would be in a much better place to discuss ending poverty in America.
These people are looking for help to pay for their living expenses such as their property costs, mortgages, and utilities. Welfare was meant to be a short term solution that would provide people with a helping hand that would allow them to take control of their life and once again be productive and able to provide for themselves and their families. At that time many families were forced to rely on government funding in order to pay their utilities, mortgage or rent, provide food and clothing for their families. While welfare is meant to be a short term solution to helping people while they find work, many people are requiring it for longer periods. Each state has their own set of rules for which people
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.
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 the summer of 1996, Congress finally passed and the President signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996", transforming the nation's welfare system. The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act sets the stage for ongoing reconstruction of welfare systems on a state-by-state basis. The combined programs will increase from nearly $100 billion this year to $130 billion per year in 6 years. Programs included are for food stamps, SSI, child nutrition, foster care, the bloss grant program for child- care, and the new block grant to take the place of AFDC. All of those programs will seek $700 billion over the next 6 years, from the taxpayers of America. This program in its reformed mode will cost $55 billion less than it was assumed to cost if there were no changes and the entitlements were left alone. The current welfare system has failed the very families it was intended to serve. If the present welfare system was working so well we would not be here today.
The original intention for creating social security was to act as a safety net for retirees, but as time past, there seems to be a great deal of economic issues relating to the program. Social security was created to help benefit retired workers, spouse and children of deceased workers, as well as workers who have become disabled before retirement. This insurance program provides retirees with a steady income once they retire. President Roosevelt signed the program into law on August 14,1935. Since then, social security has been beneficial for many workers and retirees. In fact, social security has become the main source of income for many retirees.
Welfare is a federally funded program that provides health care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing that is under the umbrella of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Per Welfare Information, eligibility is determined by net income, family size, and any crisis situation such as: pregnancy, homelessness, and unemployment. TANF also requires the recipient to obtain employment within two years of receiving help (2014). A majority of the monies that support Welfare come from taxes paid by the working class and donations from private companie...
The welfare system has helped families over time sometimes for their entire lives. Welfare is a social support system that helps families. It is provided by the government. Funding for the welfare system comes from general government revenue. The welfare system was originally call the aid to dependent children and this was created in the great depression. The AFDC was created to decrease the poverty during this time in American history. Overtime the welfare system has evolved. Although welfare provides assistance to some families, some people take advantage of the system by living off of unemployment and this can cause unfair expenses for taxpayers.
Working money provides more for families than borrowed money. Money cannot continue to be distributed unfairly from productive Americans to Americans who refuse to be constructive. Americans need to concentrate on the long-term effects of welfare. People are depending on the programs available to survive. What are we teaching our future generations, to rely on someone else? According to _ over one hundred and forty million dollars were spent on SNAP/Food Stamps in February 2016 alone; however, this was only in Tennessee. Welfare recipients are taking advantage of many aid and programs that should be profiting other families or children in crisis. Growing up there were five of us in our household. I have no problem with tax dollars being used to help families in a crisis. There were three children, my dad, and step mom; however, my dad was the only source of income for our family; therefore, my dad had to pay not only his expenses, but for four other family members too. Welfare recipients must think about this on only a small spectrum of how this would affect a family
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...
Welfare can be defined as health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being; Prosperity; and Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need (Merriam-Webster, 2014). It can be very beneficial to people in need of it. Tim Prenzler stated that, “Welfare systems are often seen as providing a ‘safety net’ that prevents citizens falling below a minimum standard of living (2012, p2). Everyone is able to use is if they are in need of it. People have successfully used welfare to get out of their slum, and started to support themselves. Others have decided to not try to get out of that slum, and live off that welfare. They decided that they didn’t have to try, and let the government support them. Welfare is a good tool for people to get back on their feet, but shouldn’t be that persons steady income.
TANF and AFDC differ in many ways: 1) TANF provides a block grant to individual states, 2) there is no longer a guarantee of cash assistant to all eligible individuals, 3) recipients may receive benefits for no more than five years over a life time, 4) recipients must adhere to work requirement to receive benefits, and 5) current and future legal immigrants are denied benefits until citizenship (O’Campo & Rojas-Smith 421). The fact that TANF is restricted for a maximum of five years has adverse consequences for the needy. Five years is often too short for recipients to gain independence.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a Federal food assistance program that can be traced to 1933. Since then SNAP has helped millions of Americans, who live below the poverty line, to purchase food and has been a safety net for Americans who have experienced hard times due to economic downturns. SNAP is an amazing federal program that without it, millions of Americans would be starving and economic activity would be down.
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 programs are an important part of American society. Without any type of American welfare, people will starve, children will not receive the proper education, and people will not receive any medical help simply because they do not have the resources available to them. Each of the three aspects of the American welfare system are unique in their own ways because they are funded differently and the benefits are given to different people. While support for these welfare systems has declined in the more recent years, the support for it when it was created was strong. There are three aspects of the American Welfare System that include social insurance programs, public assistance programs, and private or sector welfare.
...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.