...welfare recipients who receive cash under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The economical ramifications that pertain to this situation include the wants and needs of individuals versus the limited resources of the funds by taxpayers. Sources, data, and popular opinion will show that this requirement will be extremely beneficial for the American taxpayers by saving money and refusing to subsidize the drug habits of individuals who receive government assistance. Scarcity In 2011, over 4 million people received cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program (“ACF”, 2011, para. 8). These numbers do not include Food Stamps, Medicaid, or other forms of government funds; this is simple cash assistance. Ideally, all hungry and unemployed individuals would have the resources to provide for themselves and their families. However, in this economic downturn, more and more individuals are reaching out for assistance and it has become taxing on our government resources. In 1997, the U.S. Government overhauled the welfare programs known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), and Emergency Assistance (EA) (“ACF”, 2011, para. 4). Under this reform, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was developed. TANF was designed to help families discover self-sufficiency. The primary goals were to assist families in providing for children in their own homes...
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...2014 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is one of the federal assistance programs designed to help families with children providing cash and housing assistance. The cash benefit is often referred to as “welfare”. Welfare recipients are often portrayed as lazy, lacking in ambition, and unwilling to take responsibility for themselves (Brady, 2013). When the recipients of welfare receive the cash and housing benefits is it truly helping or hindering them? Doug Brady states, “the current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work.” This raises the question of should welfare regulations be changed or not? The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, was known as the “welfare reform”. TANF ended the much despised Depression-era federal entitlement to cash benefits for needy single mothers, replacing it with short term, work oriented programs designed and run by individual states (Hymowitz, 2006). Under TANF, the federal government provides a block grant to the states, which use these funds to operate their own programs. In order to receive federal funds, states must also spend some of their own dollars on programs for needy family. (Schott, 2012) Congress has provided states with $16.5 billion per year in fixed federal TANF funding to cover cash benefits primarily targeted to needy families (Brown, 2013). TANF is still one of the most expensive government programs, and participation...
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...poor, so, why is poverty rising? Are the anti-poverty programs that are now in place not working? The Center on Budget reports that our anti-poverty efforts were effective in keeping millions of Americans out of poverty in the current economic crisis. Existing policies and new initiatives kept people from falling into poverty; these programs reduced the severity of poverty. TANF was created by the 1996 welfare reform law to replace AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children). Under the TANF structure, the federal government provides a block grant to the states, which use these funds to operate their own programs. States can use TANF dollars in ways designed to meet any of the four purposes set out in federal law, which are to: “(1) provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; (2) end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; (3) prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and (4) encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.” This paper will examine the TANF program from inception to determine how effective the program has performed. REVIEW OF LITERATURE TANF’s early years witnessed dramatic declines in the number of families receiving cash assistance, and a great increases in the share of single mothers...
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...established as a Federal program during the Great Depression. In 1935, Congress enacted Aide to Dependent Children (ADC), a relatively modest program whose primary focuses was on widows, orphans, divorced or deserted mothers and their children. By 1937, ADC covered only about 7000,000 people and at least two-thirds of eligible people with children were not covered (Almanac of Policy Issues, 2001). The program grew slowly but steadily over the next two decades, providing assistance to about 3 million people by 1960. In the 1960’s and 1970’s ADC changed to Aide to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and by 1992 with the election of Bill Clinton and his promise to “end welfare as we know it. With the election of a Republic Congress in 1994, Congress was determined to change the existing welfare system and in that same year President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) as welfare reached an all-time peak of 14.2 million recipients, 5 million families and 9.6 million children (Almanac of Policy Issue, 2001). The new act ended welfare entitlement and replaced it with a new block grant providing $16.5 billion per year to states to assist the needy (Almanac of Policy Issue, 2001). This new program was called the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and would remain in effect until 2012 when the face of welfare would change again under the leadership of President Obama. This paper will provide an analysis of the social welfare...
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...The Welfare System The welfare system is run by the government that runs different programs that was originally intended to help the unemployed or underemployed (Welfare Info, n.d.). It went from just helping those two groups and branched significantly into helping low income families, disabled, and single parent families be able to live the best life possible. Some of the programs include "Medicaid, Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Head Start, Work Study, and Medicare" (Welfare Info, n.d.). Another very commonly known one is Social Security which is mainly for seniors when they retire. The history of the welfare system is quite interesting. Many years ago before the Welfare system had even began; the colonies actually imported the British Poor Laws (Welfare Info, n.d.). This basically separated those that could work and those that couldn't work due to their age or health. During the 1800's the US tried to continue work with the government so they could better benefit the poor but it wasn't until President Franklin D. Roosevelt the Social Security Act began in 1935 (Welfare Info, n.d.). With this act, it was able to launch programs to help many more people than just the elderly or those that couldn't work because of health reasons. During Bill Clinton's Presidency, he signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act" and with this, the federal government...
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...English 102 Section #27058 May 11, 2015 “This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that” John Perkins. In the past decade the government has been pushing for a welfare reform time and time again. This reform is disliked by many politician, complaining that federal law is overly prescriptive and are willing to take less federal money in return for more flexibility. The public thinks that the current reform is anti-work and anti-family and is keeping the public under poverty line. However welfare programs are set in place by the government in order to ensure a certain quality and standard of living for everyone in the country. These programs are mainly focused on children, making sure that their parents are able to feed and clothe them properly. The truth is that in today’s society The Welfare system creates more problems than it solves, creating a sense of welfare dependency, a feature of advanced industrial societies with developed welfare states, whose citizens enjoy specific “social” rights (e.g., to social security, health care, social support, and education). Bill Clinton said: “I used to get up in the morning and watch my mother get ready to go to work. And we had a lot of trouble in my home when I was a kid, and she still got up every day, no matter what the...
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...Ethical and Legal Concerns Regarding Welfare Reform Daniel Smith Business Law II, Park University Outline Ethical and Legal Concerns Regarding Welfare Reform I. Current House Vote A. Welfare Reform Act of 1996 II. Course of Welfare Reform Act A. Prejudice B. Economy III. What are President and Current Representatives saying regarding Act? A. Are Ethics being utilized properly? IV. Primary Objective of Welfare Reform Act A. Decrease Reliance B. Requirements C. Statistics D. Social Workers Some Democrats believe the 1996 welfare reform is better than the recommendations of the Obama Administration. “The House voted Thursday (September 20, 2012) to block the Obama Administration's unilateral weakening of welfare's work requirements, and political reporters are writing it off as a partisan primal scream if they notice at all.” (Unknown, 2012) All Republicans and nineteen Democrats showed their dislike of the current administrations path down the welfare reform road with an astounding 250-164 rout over welfare reform recommendations. That’s one-tenth of the Democratic caucus joining with the Republicans to say our people need welfare in its current state during these hard economic times. The Reform Act was started during the Clinton Administration in August of 1996. However, welfare has been a controversial issue since the 1960’s. It was not until the late 1980’s, when the citizens...
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...com/locate/childyouth Family economic well-being following the 1996 welfare reform: Trend data from five non-experimental panel studies Kristen Shook Slack a,⁎, Katherine A. Magnuson a , Lawrence M. Berger a , Joan Yoo b , Rebekah Levine Coley c , Rachel Dunifon d , Amy Dworsky e , Ariel Kalil f , Jean Knab g , Brenda J. Lohman h , Cynthia Osborne i a School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1350 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, United States b Columbia University, United States c Boston College, United States d Cornell University, United States e Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, United States f University of Chicago, United States g Princeton University, United States h Iowa State University, United States i University of Texas at Austin, United States Available online 10 January 2007 Abstract This analysis summarizes trends in family economic well-being from five non-experimental, longitudinal welfare-to-work studies launched following the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The studies include a sizable group of parents and other caregivers who received TANF at the point of sample selection or shortly thereafter, and share a wide range of similar measures of economic well-being. This analysis provides descriptive information on how these families are faring over time. Our results confirm what has been found by previous studies. Many families remain dependent on public...
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...Services for Low-Income Families Senior Seminar HUSC 4202 Instructor: Dr.Wheat March 15, 2012 Group 3 Presentation TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter l- Introduction Introductory paragraphs Statement of the problem Purpose Significance of the study Research questions Chapter ll- Background or Review of Literature Literature review Definition of terms Chapter lll- Methodology Restate purpose and research questions Population and sampling Instrumentation Procedure and time frame Analysis plan Validity and reliability Assumptions Scope and limitations Chapter lV Results Chapter V – Conclusions and Recommendations Summary Discussions Recommendations References Appendix Chapter I Introduction The Department of Human Services in Arkansas offers a variety of services. Group 3 will focus on five specific services. These services include: Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA), Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as food stamps, Child Care Assistance (CCAP), and AR Kids First. The Department of Human Services is required by state law to: help individuals and families meet financial, medical, and social needs; assist people to become self-sufficient; and help protect children and adults from abuse, neglect and exploitation. Group 3 researched these services to investigate qualifications and use of these services. Statement of the Problem The researchers of this study discovered that residents in Arkansas are becoming...
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...ABSTRACT: The term welfare brings a lot of controversy, for some, it implies that its recipients meaning “poor people” are getting a free ride getting public assistance. For others it is believed to be anti-work, anti-family. Nonetheless, regardless of how one’s felt about welfare, no one can argue that poverty is a social issue that has serious impact on society. Although poverty means different thing to different people, to some, poverty means the some members of society are lazy, not able to take personal responsibility. For others, it means that some members of society are not getting a fair share of the wealth distribution. The point that it remain is viewed as not having enough or lacking enough resource to provide for one’s needs. But many disagree on this definition, because some scholars in the field of sociology agree that poverty transcend money and wealth. Hutchinson (2003) eloquently posits that” poverty influences the ability of parents to adequately meet their children’s basic needs. Understanding human development requires an ecological approach that views the child in a home environment duly placed in a community context, where the family strives to meet their needs and obtain long-term resources” (p.56). The social problem created by poverty is a much larger than any debate ever address. Its remains an issue of serious social concern, addressing the truthfulness about poverty is crucial to assist in the policy making process. Because ignoring the cause...
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...The Welfare State - A Cost Benefit Analysis The role of welfare within our society has always been controversial. This problem emphasizes the need to understand the roles of variable factors when pertaining to the subject of welfare within our society. The proposed analysis will address the phenomenon of welfare assistance and several factors which may contribute to the increase or decrease of welfare assistance to the poor in 4 ways: (1) by defining major concepts and any other concepts about which there is likely to be misunderstanding (2) by further examining the past history pertaining to the subject of welfare assistance within the United States; (3) by developing the formulation of a hypothesis which will provide for an explanation of welfare; and finally (4) determining whether or not the benefits of welfare assistance outweigh the cost. Ultimately, the purpose of this research analysis is to investigate variable factors that may contribute to the increase or decrease of welfare assistance. This cost benefit analysis is an attempt to explain the tentative assumptions of others pertaining to the subject of welfare, in order to determine and explain the relationship of welfare to the economic cost and benefits. Cost-Benefit Analysis Before welfare assistance can be analyzed there is a need to define the terms that will be used. Policies like welfare assistance are worthwhile only if the benefits to society are greater than the costs. When choosing among a set of policies...
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...of poverty as, “households who do not have a sufficient income to meet minimal food and basic needs.” The poverty threshold varies between households with more or less occupants and members under the age of 18 or over the age of 65. For example a household with one member under the age of 18-65 in 2014 has a weighted threshold average of 12,119 per year, while a household with one member over the age of 65 have a threshold of 11,173 (Census Bureau, 2014). U.S. poverty was first measured in the 1960’s through the Social Security Administration, under the help of economist Mollie Orshansky. Orshansky helped establish the official poverty threshold, by using the cost of the Department of Agriculture’s economical food plan. She estimated families in United States spent on average a third of their income on food and, thus conceived the poverty threshold should be three times the of minimal food requirements for adequate living. In 1969, the U.S. government adopted her poverty threshold as the official statistical definition of poverty (Kolesnikova and, Liu 2012), One very disconcerting finding of the poverty threshold is it...
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...poverty, but the plight of children has worsened. Several factors have contributed to this problem. As measured by inflation adjusted dollars, wages of low-skill jobs have declined. The number of families headed by unmarried mothers has risen, and large numbers of immigrants with little education have entered the U.S. The combination of these factors have resulted in approximately 20% of our country’s children living in poverty, which is 50% higher than 1969. Historically, the foundational basis for lifting the disenfranchised out of poverty is education. One of the first steps of the civil rights movement was a grassroots movement educating the poor and disenfranchised to a level of literacy that would enable them to register to vote. This strategy was led by Stephen Currier and his wife, Audrey Bruce, the granddaughter of Andrew Mellon, during the early 1960s. Their Taconic Foundation brought the leading civil rights groups together with other foundations including the Stern, Rockefeller, and Norman foundations. The funding to civil rights advocacy associations was matched with volunteers throughout the South who tutored prospective voters in literacy and then sent them back to their own communities to teach others. The Currier’s Taconic Foundation also funded a program in Harlem that had been developed at New York University. The goal was teaching disadvantaged children concepts and skills needed for school, while developing motivation and self-confidence. It was possibly...
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...morbidly rate among every population in the world. One of the Healthy People 2020 initiatives is to reduce the number of obese Americans. The Surgeon General estimates that 300,000 deaths a year in the United States alone, can be linked to obesity ("Overweight and Obesity: Health Consequences", 2013). Often seen as a social issue, obesity is very much a medical condition and community members should consult their physician before beginning any weight loss or exercise program. There are several diseases and illnesses that can be connected to obesity. These include, but are not limited to: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, respiratory problems, arthritis, and birth defects among children born to women who are obese. Heart disease is the number one leading cause of death, responsible for one of every three deaths per year, nationwide (Swartz, 2013). In order to help communities achieve the Healthy People 2020 goals, there are multiple local, state and federal agencies offering free or relatively affordable programs. As a community, we must assist our citizens achieve a healthy weight and activity level. Obesity is a national epidemic. Several studies have noted a connection between obesity and social and economic status in adults. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a review addressing the issue of obesity among adults across different levels of age, education, income, race, gender, and ethnicity. The review compared data collected over a twenty year span...
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...The “Iron Triangle” The “Iron Triangle” is defined as “a concept that focuses on the balance of three factors: quality, cost, and accessibility to healthcare (Niles, 2011).” These three factors play a key role in making this concept work. Quality is “character with respect to fineness, or grade of excellence (“Quality,” 2010).” Cost is “the price paid to acquire, produce, accomplish, or maintain anything (“Cost”, 2010).” Accessibility means “obtainable; attainable ("Accessibility," 2010).” Although the “Iron Triangle” consist of three important factors, it is hard to have a balance between the three. In order for a healthcare system to work there has to be a balance between all three factors. Each factor in the triangle can affect the other factors. Meaning it is hard to make all three factors equal without losing a factor. “If one factor is emphasized, such as cost reduction, it may create an inequality of quality and access because costs are being cut. Because lack of access is a problem in the United States, healthcare systems may focus on increasing access, which could increase costs. In order to assess the success of a healthcare delivery, it is vital that consumers assess their health care by analyzing the balance between cost, access, and quality” (Niles, 2011). For example, if I hospital needed some new medical equipment they would probably want the best quality they could get. The equipment would be of great quality but they would end up spending a lot...
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