Welfare to Work Programs

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Societies for years have preached the theory of individual responsibility as the righteous route for it citizens to pursuit. The worth of a society is often based on the monetary network of individuals. Moreover, in the United States this is the norm to focus on individual responsibility. However, every society is faced with the conflict of poverty that requires some type of social welfare policy. Poverty is not a stranger to the United States and therefore it created program such as welfare to assist the poor. The welfare system has evolved over the years sometime for the good and others for the bad. In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. This law changes the way welfare function. This paper will examine welfare to work programs in the United States.

I. Structural components

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 also known as (Welfare to work) objective was to end welfare. It further aimed at placing limits on benefits and to help improve on the collection of child support. President Clinton was acting on a promise he made during the Democratic National Convention to reform welfare by creating million of jobs. The Welfare reform Act purpose was to create jobs by incentivizing employers to hire welfare recipients by giving them tax credits.

“The critics of this law believed that it harmed the poor by reducing or ending benefits and requiring the recipients to find work within a two year or perform community service”(sourcewatch.org). Through this new law the states governments were eligible to receive block grant from the Federal government. The funds would be administered by the states to welf...

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...tive citizen and contribute to the revenues of the government. Moreover, the latent consequences of welfare to work are positive for society. Welfare to work program meet the test of social justice in that it give the recipients an opportunity to improve their life.

References

(No Author) 1996 Personal Responsibility &Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://www.sourcewatch.org

Dolgoff, R. & Feldstein. (2009). Understanding social welfare: A search for social justice. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Stryker, R., & Wald, P. (2009). Redefining Compassion to Reform Welfare: How Supporters of 1990s US Federal Welfare Reform Aimed for the Moral High Ground. Social Politics, 16(4), 519. Retrieved April 2, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1921506111).

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