How is the welfare reform doing after twenty years? (Original Editorial)

The term welfare refers to the federal program that took place during the Great Depression. In 1935 Congress authorized Aid to Dependent Children, ADC. It served as primary assistance to windows, orphans, divorced or disserted mothers and their children. By 1939 the program served 700,000 people and two-thirds of eligible children were not enrolled. The program grew slowly but firmly in the next two decades. In 1992 the program covered 14.2 million people in need. The ADC was becoming very expansive and some beneficiaries were taking advantage of it; these were just some of the facts that made it obvious that the system needed some sort of reform.

In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president and promised to “end welfare as we know it.” Although President Clinton signed the bill, he vetoed the first two welfare reform bills. Bill Clinton stood against radical welfare reforms and did not sign the bill before a compromise. Congress wanted to give the states total responsibility over the funds for food stamps, and Medicaid. On the other hand, Clinton wanted to preserve national standards and guarantee that the poor would receive food stamps and Medicaid coverage. He argued that Medicaid and a better day care support was essential to help disabled and poor children. President Clinton wanted to give the states an option on whether or not to use the Federal block grant money to pay for vouchers in order to help families pay for diapers, clothing, medicine, and school supplies for the children; meanwhile, Congress wanted to use Federal money to afford vouchers for families that exceeded the five year limit on cash assistance.

In August 22, 1996 Clinton finally signed the bill, and the “welfare reform” took place. The welfare system was renamed to Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, its name was just one of the changes that took place. Some of its major changes included: recipients were no longer guaranteed benefits upon eligibility, the Child Care and Community Development Block Grant was introduced in order to include more families, it required recipients to find a job and start working within two years of receiving benefits (some states also required community service from recipients within two months of receiving benefits), and it placed a five year lifetime limit on assistance; however, states could shorten the five years period and exempt up to twenty percent of the cases due to hardship reasons.

Eligibility requirements of welfare programs:

• A basic lack of gainful employment opportunity through either lack of places of employment or lack of job skill.
• A commitment to self-sufficiency is necessary before any potential recipient can begin to receive benefits. Heads of household must enter into an agreement they will become self-sufficient within a certain time frame.
• A commitment to cooperation must be signed by the heads of household that they will comply with and continue all regulations and requirements while receiving aid.
• Dependent children must be living in the household. There are some very few exceptions, but generally all dependents must be within the home.
• All minors must be attending school during school days.
• All minors and dependents must be fully and appropriately immunized.
• The recipient must be 18 years of age.
• You must be a legal and permanent resident of the state to which you are applying.
• You must be a citizen of the United States or a qualified non-citizen legal resident, (restrictions apply).
• A commitment to complete accuracy and honesty during the program.
• All monetary resources must be divulged. This includes cash within the home, in checking or savings accounts and items of value in possession such as jewelry or electronics.
• A household financial budget must be created and adhered to.

There are still critics arguing that people might become too dependent on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, they argue that it is possible for a family to exceed the five years limit that is set on the Act, which is a possibility that is rather unlikely. But let’s talk about what is likely, and in fact, what has been happening. With little enforcement and plenty of options for states to use welfare money however they find beneficial, the welfare reform is not actually doing great. It was a great deal during the first years when the American economy was also bustling, but in the beginning of the twenty-first century a lot of people (including single mothers) lost their jobs. The recession of 2007 and 2008 was also a rough time for the needy, let’s also remember that in a world of changing technology the poor is mostly always behind. So how good did the welfare reform really do? I’d say it gave the poor the needed boost during the first years, and merely a couple months close to stability nowadays. The $16.5 billion has remained the value of the fund since it started, meaning that it is now worth one-third less than it was when Clinton signed the bill. Also meaning that the poor is staying behind and so is our society. As President Bill Clinton said “we cannot build our own future without helping others built theirs” so let’s start it from scratch so that the future can be a better place than the present is.