Welfare Intervention Research Paper

The Social Security Act of 1935, signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, created a program that included social insurance programs, as well as public assistance. Both programs came about due to the depression and were created as part of the New Deal to benefit the citizens who needed assistance. While both programs were created to assist the public, each program had different eligibility requirements and accomplished different tasks.

The Personal Responsibility Work and Opportunity Act was a bill that was passed into law in 1996. This law created a new program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The changes in the TANF program were significantly different than the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. The TANF program became a part of the national welfare reform which puts a stop to women with children being entitled to an endless amount of cash benefits. Welfare reform was part of President Bill Clinton and his campaign’s “promise to end welfare as we know it” (Gilbert and Terrell 2013 p.74). The sponsor of this bill was a Republican representative for Ohio’s 12th Congressional district and his name was John Kasich (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/104/hr3734).

Welfare started as a temporary response to the economic crash in the 1930s. Its primary goal was to provide cushioning to the families who lost the ability to be self-sufficient during the Great Depression. Yet, as America slowly rose back to becoming prosperous and wealthy, a significant chunk of America's population stayed below in the transitioning social system. The welfare system started to become counterproductive to the government so that, in the 1990s, Clinton hastily came up with legislation to end welfare, more famously known as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. This road that Clinton led ended in a downfall as more people than ever before are now dependent on the federal government for food, housing, and income. Our current welfare reform may need another reform before welfare can truly end.

During the Great Depression people lost their jobs and didn 't have money available when they retired. Franklin Roosevelt wanted citizens to have money available if they became unable to work anymore or not start work at all because of an unforeseen event in their life. By reading the debate and ideas of the Act, a better understanding of how the Social Security Act came to be can be gained. The Social Security Act was created in 1935 for people that are disabled who can 't work at all and for citizens that work to have money put into social security and available after retirement. It was used to help citizens after the Great Depression who lost their jobs. This act would help citizens that work to have benefits by having employers pay into a trust fund, so money would be available to employees after they retire or become disabled while working.

It is well known that the Social Security Act of 1935 created a federally financed and federally administered retirement insurance program for people who had worked in certain sectors of the economy and had paid payroll taxes on their wages. What is less known is that the Act also created a federally financed but state-administered program called Aid to Dependent Children (“ADC,” later to become Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or “AFDC”)? As Sheldon H. Danziger and Jeffrey S. Lehman stated in “Welfare”, “When Americans speak of “welfare” or “relief” they are usually alluding to ADC and its successor programs. From the outset, the design and implementation of ADC

Under these reform acts most recipients were required to find jobs within two years of first receiving welfare payments, they were allowed up to 5 years of payments, and there were also family caps to prevent additional benefits being rewarded. Whether these reform acts were successful in their goals is a topic that has been intensely debated, and Ehrenreich provides somewhat of a first hand account of how these reforms directly affected recipients.

There been many discussion about rather or not to change the requirements or keep them the same. The Supreme Court has denied any attempt for lawyers to challenge this reform. They have also denied the chance to challenge any cases dealing with welfare. President Obama has been accused of exempting some families from reaching all of these requirements but even president Bill Clinton knew this was not true. They are still in discussion of rather they should change the requirements for receiving assistance from the government. Also, Congress are in a mix up trying to decide if they should allow legal immigrants to receive assistance under certain circumstances. Overall, they are doing a good job at handling the welfare reforms and look forward to coming up with a good solution to this

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was enacted in order to change the current welfare policy at the time. This welfare policy that existed was originally meant to provide financial assistance as well as decent healthcare coverage during times of economic hardship (Kaestner, 2004). This policy was implemented as a way to help hundreds of thousands of families overcome financial hurdles. However, the idea behind the reforming of welfare was to avoid the stereotypical individuals that lived off of welfare to continue doing so. Evidence existed that concluded that people who lived off of government welfare assistance were actually allowing this system to destroy their desire to work and sustain themselves (Rector & Marshall, 2013). Welfare was seen as a detrimental part of the government and it was viewed as feeding into a lazy and poorly disciplined class of individuals. Welfare's initial intention was to aid widows who had children to support, but in a matter of decades the entire welfare system converted from being a safety net for individuals in dire times of need, to a support system for able-bodied men who lacked motivation to find employment and sustain themselves and their families (Rector & Marshall, 2013). The Welfare Reform Act came as a way to remedy these problems. Stipulations were put on those applying to receive welfare benefits. Limits were enacted that would reduce the amount of time that people could receive the benefits in order to speed up their

The issues surrounding welfare and welfare reform are controversial, political, and difficult to resolve. The debate continues today as to who deserves benefits and who does not. In 1933, President Roosevelt created Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) as part of the New Deal. This early form of welfare was available to those who could demonstrate a need and the ability to maintain minimal assets of their own. It specifically targeted aid to single women with children. It was a controversial and highly debated subject. Even now, many years later, Congress continues to debate and reform welfare programs. It still brings with it the same intensity, controversy, and conflicting opinion it did years ago.

In 1935, President Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act, sending the United States onto the historically unprecedented path of the welfare of the welfare state. In the wake of his footsteps, aggressive expansion has grown welfare programs to include everything from Medicare to food stamps. Many would say that the US government is not only obligated morally to provide welfare but also that it provides extensive societal economic windfalls. However, critics of welfare argue that the flaws of the US welfare system and its runaway nature outweigh the potential benefits.

Another failure in welfare reform is clear in the welfare-to-work reform that was enacted in 1996. It has fallen short in regards to what it set out to accomplish. This reform was intended to discourage everyone but the very ill or disabled from leading a life on benefits. Although, great in theory, it has failed to move many from the welfare system to the work force, and has two major stumbling blocks. The first one is very clear, the jobs just aren’t there. With the worsening economy and so many people losing their employment, the job market is flooded with people trying to find jobs. Many businesses have been forced to close which has contributed to less job openings. Without jobs for people to move into they continue to rely on welfare for their existence. The second problem with the welfare-to-work reform is that the jobs that can be obtained aren’t what they were in the past. Many jobs today are temporary, part-time, or have uncertain hours. Leaving the security of benefits for jobs like these can be related to stepping out on cracking ice, and not many people are willing to take this step. Unless these problems are dealt with, the welfare-to-work reform will continue to be unsuccessful in helping people gain employment and they will continue to cling to benefits for support.

But federal aid programs have not helped the poor become self-sufficient or reduced the poverty levels. Ever since welfare has been created it has weakened the American work ethic and encouraged out-of-wedlock births. That unfortunate “tradition” keeps getting passed down from generation to generation (DeHaven). An abundant amount of families out there truly need assistance. The troublesome reality is that the number of people trying to take whatever they can get outweighs the number that’s just trying to get back up on their

Interventionist agree with the traditional welfare programs being an income maintenance. Some people cannot obtain a job because they simply have barriers such as physical illness, lack of transportation, mental illness, or substance abuse, so they believe that welfare can help to assist these individuals. With new workfare programs like TANF it leaves individuals unavailable to get assistance, so they then branch out to relatives, friends, or anyone else for this help they need that they can no longer obtain from the government. Getting rid of, or changing traditional welfare only move/shifts the poverty elsewhere, it doesn’t eliminate the problem. The workfare programs show little success with the group of disadvantaged who have a great deal

Welfare was accepted as a success and continued for almost sixty years. In the 1990’s Americans began to question the effectiveness of the government welfare system. In 1992, President Bill Clinton took office. One of his main problems to address while in office was the corrupted welfare system. After four years of brainstorming and planning, the United States Government decided upon how to eliminate the corrupted members of society from collecting government welfare.

Welfare was created as an amendment to the social security act of 1935 in 1939. Before this many things were being implemented already as a form of welfare. Such as Medicaid, food stamps, and SSI (Supplement Security Income). During this time was the great depression which extremely affected the American economy, causing thousands of people to become unemployed. These established many of the programs that built the way welfare is shaped today such as the AFDC (Aid to Families with Independent Children). Due to these being created there had to organizations and agencies to supervise