Welfare is a government program that provides money, medical care,food, housing, and other things that people need in order to survive.
Peoplewho can receive help from these welfare programs are children, elders,disabled, and others who cannot support their families on their currentincome. Another name for welfare is public assistance. There are many organizations that supply this public assistance. Suchas Salvation Army and other groups. Public assistance benefits help manypeople who live below the poverty line, an income level is established forfamilies.
If your income is below this you would be eligible to receive thisFederal and state governments in the Unites States serve the poorpeople through about 60 public assistance programs. Most people receivehelp through one of the four major programs. These programs are Medicaid,Aid to families with dependant Children, Social Security, or SupplementalSecurity, or the food stamps program. I will discuss the four programsMedicaid provides free medical care to the poor people.
Funds varyfrom state to state. In some situations, people who may be able to pay dailyneeds, but can’t afford large medical bills may also be able to receiveMedicaid. Some services paid for are bills such as doctor’s visits and nursinghome care. Most Medicaid funding comes from the federal government. The rest is supplied by the state.
Each state runs their own MedicaidA. F. D. C. provides cash benefits to dependent children and the parentsor the guardians taking care of them.
Most families that qualify for A. F. D. C.
have just one parent in the home. About 80 percent of these families areheaded by a woman. A. F.
D. C. also pays benefits to two-parent families ifboth parents are unemployed. Most A. F.
D. C. funding comes from thefederal government. The states provide the rest of the money and administerthe program.
The sizes of families’ payment vary from state to state. Next is Social Security Income. This provides financial Aid to peoplein need who are at least 65 years old, blind, or disabled. The federalgovernment finances and administers social security income programs inmost states, though some states supply the federal payment and are able toFinally, the Food Stamp Program helps low-income households buymore and better food than they could otherwise afford. Each participatinghousehold receives a certain number of coupons called food stamps.
Thestamps are issued by the federal government. The number of stamps ahousehold receives varies with the family’s size, income, and expenses. Cooperating grocery stores accept the stamps like money for food purchasesThere are other programs such as energy assistance and publichousing. Energy assistance, which is federally financed but administered bythe states, helps people pay fuel bills. Public housing provides low costrental apartments in government owned buildings. State and local governments fund and administer their own generalassistance programs.
These programs provide financial aid for needy peoplewho do not qualify for other types of welfare. People waiting to receiveassistance from other programs also may get temporary emergency aid fromBack in the early days, welfare resembled the English system. Socialgovernments were responsible for helping the poor. But the colonies andlater the states, sometimes helped the local government provide aid. The firstfederal welfare program, began after the Revolutionary War, they providedpensions to war veterans. During the Civil War these pensions wereexpanded to cover soldiers’ widows and orphans.
In the early 1900’s,primary responsibility for providing welfare benefits shifted from local tostate governments. During these years, states enacted programs to aiddependent children and the elderly. The criticisms of welfare ranges over a number of social and economicissues. Some people criticize welfare programs for not providing highenough benefits to eliminate poverty. Spending on welfare would have toincrease greatly to eliminate poverty, and many people believe the cost isMany critics of the welfare system charge that providing a steadyincome to needy people encourages idleness. Actually, most welfare benefitsgo to elderly, blind, and disabled people and mothers with young children.
But welfare does discourage some recipients from working harder byreducing benefits if their income increases. Many people also criticize the welfare system for being too complexand costly to administer. Each program has its own eligibility requirementsand ways of calculating benefits, and these rules vary from state to state. Public officials collect detailed information about applicants to determinetheir eligibility for benefits. This process is time-consuming and costly. Some people cheat the system by not reporting all the income theyearn.
But suppliers of services to welfare recipients account for most of thefraud in welfare. Some physicians, pharmacists, and others have beenoverpaid because they have made up false bills. In my opinion I believe you need welfare because people do need help. But I would lower its percent because it won’t hurt that much.
Mostimportantly we have to do a better job at finding all the people who cheat theprogram and make them work to repay it. Bibliography:Bibliography1. World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995Published by: Funk ; Wagnalls Corporation2. World Almanac 1989Published by: Washington Times Corporation
