Social Policy and Welfare System

2031 words 9 pages
Show More
SOCIAL POLICY

Social Policy and the Welfare System
Leigh-Ann Hancock
Kaplan University
HN300-01 Human Services and Social Policy
Professor Lorena Lashway
May 1, 2012

Social Policy and the Welfare System Over one hundred years ago poverty-stricken Americans’ means of assistance was met through families, local communities, and charities, typically religious. Following industrialization in the 1870s, the nation’s adult workforce was flooded by employers who were dependent on a continuing flow of money income to provide for themselves and their families (Historical Development, 1997). Over time, measures such as Mother’s pension laws, were adopted in a number of states which gave cash allowances to households without a wage-earning …show more content…

Welfare program abuse was suspected and claimed by many. Accusations of individuals not applying for work, having more children to get more aid, and staying unmarried just to receive greater benefits, were voiced by dissenters of the current welfare state. During the Reagan administration it was purported that those displeased with the current welfare system felt that providing assistance to children under one year of age perpetuated dependency on the welfare system, which was contrary to the programs goals (Encyclopedia.Com, 2012). Welfare reform is government’s attempt to change the social welfare policy of the country (Welfare Reform – Social Welfare Change, 2012). In 1996 the Welfare Reform Act was passed in answer to the public’s concerns that initial programs born out of the Great Depression era were counterproductive. The objectives of the welfare system today are to raise the living standards of low-income families, provide incentives to work, keep costs low and funding ample (Welfare Reform: A Brief Summary, 2005). Welfare encompasses government programs that provide benefits and financial assistance to no or low income Americans (Welfare Information, 2012). Goals of the welfare system include improving the quality of life and living standards for the poor and underprivileged and helping individuals and families break the cycle of dependency on welfare through educational assistance (Welfare Information, 2012).

Related

  • What Is the Evidence of Welfare State Retrenchment ?
    1457 words | 6 pages

    What is the evidence of welfare state retrenchment in western welfare states? 1. Introduction 1. Crisis of Welfare State At the end of the 1970’s, the welfare state moved into crisis (OECD, 1981; Rosanvallon, 1981). As the period of high economic growth ended and stagflation appeared, governments couldn’t afford the social expenditure which had been expanded before. Fiscal deficit appeared and unemployment rate started to increase with economic depression. The idea shared by….

    Show More
  • Review of Shipler's the Working Poor
    2601 words | 11 pages

    “how people in real communities devise collective responses to their problems (Segal, 2010).” A. Barriers In a absorbing way that made me cringe at times, Shipler allows these ‘invisible’ poor to narrate in their personal stories the structural, social, economic and cultural barriers that impact the families. Although I tend to disagree, Shipler admits that one….

    Show More
  • Social Policy
    2186 words | 9 pages

    Unit 7 Social Policy LO1 Understand the significant historical and contemporary landmarks in social welfare provision 1.1 Outline significant historical and contemporary landmarks in social policy. Social policy is the study of social services and the welfare state. In general terms, it looks at the idea of social welfare, and its relationship to politics and society. More specifically, it also considers detailed issues in * policy and administration of social services, including….

    Show More
  • The Welfare State
    1661 words | 7 pages

    THE WELFARE STATE: The role and significance of the Beveridge Report in establishing the Welfare State in Britain. The purpose of this essay is to look at the long history of the Welfare State in Britain and the evolving social, economic and political changes in society today, as well as the birth of the Welfare State after the Second World War which was the turning point (watershed) in British History. The freshly appointed Labour government by then took on the job of setting up a ‘welfare state’….

    Show More
  • Discuss the Difficulties in Seeking to Adopt a Common Social Policy and Social Welfare Agenda Among the E.U. Member States.
    3957 words | 16 pages

    difficulties in seeking to adopt a common social policy and social welfare agenda among the E.U. member states. Introduction A social policy is a public policy and practice in the areas of health care, human services, criminal justice, education, and labor. (Malcolm Wiener Centre) In European Union, it has passed a long way to seeking adopt a common social policy and social welfare agenda among the E.U. member states. Caune et al has summarized the process of social policy into three steps followed by the….

    Show More
  • The Abuse of the Welfare System
    9691 words | 39 pages

    Welfare was established by the Social Security Act of 1935, and administered by individual states and territories for the government to help poverty stricken children and other dependent persons. Wicipedia defines welfare as " money paid by the government to those who are in need of financial assistance, are unable to work, or whose circumstances mean the income they require for basic needs is in excess of their salary" (Welfare (financial aid)). This program helped many families survive during The….

    Show More
  • Public Policy Evalution
    2598 words | 11 pages

    Policy evaluation can be better defined as a process by which general judgments about quality, goal attainment, program effectiveness, impact, and costs can be determined. It is an assessment of whether a set of activities implemented under a specific policy has achieved a given set of objectives. Once public policy has been operationalized through the formal adoption of laws, rules, or regulations, and the bureaucracy has taken action to implement the policy, some form of evaluation needs to be….

    Show More
  • Is Welfare Possible for Marx Under the Capitalist Mode of Production
    1379 words | 6 pages

    In discussing is welfare possible for Marx under the capitalist mode of production there is some debate that the welfare state have been guided through by questions, one is that the salience of the class diminish with the extension of social citizenship? Or can welfare state fundamentally transforms capitalist society? And finally what are the causal forces behind welfare- state development? (Esping-Andersen, 1989). But as you can guess these questions aren’t recent, as they were established in….

    Show More
  • Organizational Analysis of Dept of Human Services
    1362 words | 6 pages

    conducted on September 2002. The findings showed areas where Michigan was successful and those areas where improvements are needed in our child welfare system. Michigan's Program Improvement Plan was approved on May 24, 2004. Executing these strategies in the plan is a joint effort between state, federal, and private agency partners. Demographics and social stratification of the community are the basis of what foster care is, and they majorly influence the determination of goals. African….

    Show More
  • 2. What is “New Public Management‟? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this trend for the delivery of human services? What are its implications for non-government welfare organisations?
    2095 words | 9 pages

    may not be enough for many people who are going hungry, but again reducing costs is the main focus. The introduction of NPM marked the departure of Australia from a welfare state to a post welfare state where welfare is no longer universal to all citizens but for a selected few (Jamrozik 2009). An example is the Australian Health System. Even though health provision is universal through Medicare, there is a gap between private and public health services. The rich can get services much quicker than….

    Show More

Popular Essays