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Dynamics of Ethics: Welfare Reform Program for Adults with Children

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Dynamics of Ethics: Welfare Reform Program for adults with children
The program used to be called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); today people call the program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). What was the reasoning behind changing the program names? There were some changes that took place outside of just the name. What is the preferred outcome with all these changes? Will these changes be positive or negative? Who will benefit or who will not benefit from these changes?
Let us first look at AFDC; what was it? AFDC was formulated in 1935 and was put in place to assist families that were considered poor whom also had children under the age of 18 some kind of cash benefits to help these families live (Coven, 2005). This program was being funded by the state and federal government. Most of the money was provided from the federal and the state would apply the remainder and run the program. The state would set guidelines as too who would qualify and how much benefits they should receive.
AFDC was what people would turn to too live. Being an ex AFDC recipient I always thought I knew the INS and the outs of the program. AFDC helped me raise my children from 1993 through 2004. That is 11 years and before that AFDC helped my significant other raise my child for two years from 1991 through 1993. My oldest child now is 16 years old. A total of 13 years of his life was fully or partially supported by AFDC. Personally I never thought that I would be off of AFDC. This was how I was going to support my children forever and I know many people who thought the same way.
TANF was formulated in 1996 as “a block grant created by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996” (Coven, 2005). TANF replaced AFDC and there were numerous changes and outcomes for people who were on AFDC. I was on AFDC when the program or name and qualifications were taking place. TANF is supposed to be a “time-limited program designed to protect those who cannot work and to require those that are able to work to do so” (State of Hawaii, 2004-2008). TANF is more state funded rather than federally funded.
The two major changes that came into effect when TANF came about were work requirements and a time limit for financial benefits. Along with these came stronger penalties and incentives. The change that the state wanted to see was these families becoming more independent. As with my case, there were many families that were totally dependent on the assistance these programs offered. “TANF require work and promote self-reliance, responsibility, and family stability” (State of Hawaii, 2004-2008). The TANF program wanted to spend more money in giving these adults that were able bodied to work the opportunities needed to succeed in a stable life for their families. The time limit that is set for this program is five years; after each year so much percent of the assistance was dropped. “In December 2001, eligibility expired for 539 families who were the first to reach the five-year time limit” (State of Hawaii). From 2002 through 2005 there were over 2500 cases closed due to the five-year time limit for financial services.
As seen with these statistics anyone can see that there were many people who were affected through these changes. The question then lies, was the change a benefit or repercussion? Personally I have had two different views to these changes. The reason that I have two different views is because I have been on both sides of the fence. I have been a recipient of AFDC when this all started and now being no longer on any kind of assistance and a productive member of society; my feelings from when this program changed and now is different. As an AFDC participant when these changes came into effect I felt angry, frustrated, and appalled. Now that I am a productive member of society I feel pleased, blessed and satisfied.
As an AFDC participant when these changes were taking place there were many people who were as angry and frustrated as I was. I remember feeling that it was not fair. How can the state take this from me? This was the only thing that I had to raise my family and that I could not live without this money. I had a high school diploma but had never held a job before. The only job that I could remember doing was a summer job filing paperwork at Kaiser on St. Johns Road. This summer job was when I was 14 years old and I did not think that I could get a good job that would support me and my family.
I fought this system and fought this system for numerous years before complying. I remember going to the doctors to get exemptions after exemptions. There was a paper that needed to fill in monthly stating that you were looking for a job. I would turn this paper in with a bunch of lies on them. I would look in the paper, see where was hiring, and write them down. I did not think that they were going to check everyone’s paperwork. The state just did not have any time to do that.
I eventually got a job delivering newspapers to three different routes in Hilo. Later I was employed at two different McDonalds. I did not want to go to work but this program made it difficult to just stay home and collect my paycheck. If I did not do something then I would get sanctioned. I continued to mess with the system till about six months before my time limit was up. There were many reasons that I wanted to stay home but none of them were sufficient enough too collect more money from the state.
Today as I stated earlier, am a productive member of society. If it were not for this new program called TANF I would probably still be collecting benefits. Today I view this program as trying to help families as it had helped me. If people can give this program an honest shot and use what the program has to offer them this program will help people get their lives together. I am aware that some people are still doing what I was doing and sometimes that irritates me. But I need to remember, always remember, where I came from.

References
Coven, M. (2005, November 22). An introduction to tanf. Retrieved February 12, 2008, from http://www.cbpp.org/1-22-02tanf2.htm
State of Hawaii (2004-2008). The benefit, employment and support services division (BESSD). Retrieved February 8, 2008, from http://www.hawaii.gov/dhs/self-sufficiency/benefit/

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