Abuse The Welfare System

The article "Flat Broke with Children" Sharon Hays gave a lot of insight about what people think of welfare. She took the opinions of people using welfare and also the people not using welfare. Welfare has helped many in the united states. Most that are on welfare think of it as a security blanket. Times do get rough and life does happen.

By requiring people on welfare to work, and assisting them to get low-paying jobs if nothing else, the state and local governments give the people incentive to get better paying jobs and keep them. I read an article once that showed the correlation between government-assisted welfare workers and full-time permanent employment of those same workers later. I firmly believe that people will help and support themselves if given a decent chance. This country is founded on the idea of self-sufficiency. We are taught this in the public schools from the first day. We are trained not to cheat, not to steal answers from another person's paper, and not to depend on others to do our work for us. It seems to be an innate human quality that people want to rely on upon themselves and achieve goals on their own. When people who are down on their luck are given a helping hand, often they will move from

Welfare was created in 1935 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the closest technique or practice of our country to socialism. It helped families during the Great Depression, but has been abused thoroughly within our country. Many citizens would like to do away with the system, but many resist this because it is their only income. Lots of skeptical citizens see it as the root of much of our country’s debt, but there is no easy way for it to be eliminated. Many steps have been taken to reduce the abusement and eventually do away with the system. This includes drug testing for welfare recipients. There are multiple issues with this idea and lots of people would like keep the system. Taxpayers that dislike what the government has come to, fear that

To be exact, 4.1% of the United States population is on welfare. This means that about $131.9 billion of government spending is used on welfare annually! In eight states welfare pays more than the average teacher’s salary (US Department of Health and Human Services). So really, people who are on welfare are getting more money than an average person working everyday and not receiving any help. The United States is already dealing with a very big debt problem. We should not be wasting money on those who abuse it and take it for granted. There have been some cases where people have taken the money that they receive from welfare and spend it on drugs. We could be paying off our debt but instead we are feeding into people’s drug addictions. There have not been a lot of cases where this has happened but all it takes is one person before it starts a chain reaction. It is said that more welfare recipients will use illicit drugs

Emily Badger said in The Washington Post “The reality, though, is that a tremendous share of people who rely on government programs designed for the poor in fact work — they just don't make enough at it to cover their basic living expenses (Badger).” To even go a little further, according to the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education seventy-three percent of individuals who benefit from assistant programs in the U.S, live in a household where at least one individual is earning/bringing in an income. Even with that income they just cant afford the tedious things such as medial bills, paying for childcare/daycare services, or buying groceries after they receive their paycheck or get done paying all of the other bills that factor into everyday life (Badger). If there was a crack down on the requirements for welfare, yes it may be a little harder to receive but for people who TRULY need it would get it. As long as one can prove that they cannot make all of their bills and provide their family with all of the necessities with the income they have, they should absolutely receive welfare. If you do not have a job you should be given the option to either find a job by a certain deadline, or participate in community service. If half of the individuals who abuse welfare we caught, and forced to

But today many have seen welfare as not doing anything to benefit the United States. Programs are misusing taxpayers money and now with over 109,631,000 people on welfare, over 34% of the United States population, people are becoming too dependent on welfare and are unable to become independent from government assistance. The current system of welfare is inefficient, corrupt,

$152.8 billion dollars every year is going towards welfare programs (Brooks Jackson). Welfare was created in the 1930’s in order to provide assistance to a nation that was struggling as a whole. Almost 25% of people were without work with nowhere to go. The people stood tall as a nation and formed soup kitchens and community housing. For the people and by the people the nation was held up. Today we depend on an application to decide the fate of whether or not we will receive government assistance. Hard working men and woman are sick and tired of working and a quarter of their paycheck going to taxes to support people who have no will to move themselves further in life. Should government assistance not exist today? No. But we as a nation and government need to teach and assist those in need how to drive themselves forward instead of how to fill out an application. Instead of unemployment offices working to gain benefits and assistance for those in need they should be working to actively see out jobs for those unemployed. Welfare is like a weed, if we never seek to destroy its existence it will only

Thousands of people are signed up to receive welfare in America, this program is designed to aid poor and needy families. However, it has become some people’s way of earning an income. Several argue against and say that welfare is not destroying our country and creating a dependent people who have learned to abuse certain privileges that come with living in this nation.

While welfare funding can be very beneficial to those in need of financial aid, the system is also frequently abused. People who do not actually need the extra help have found ways to use the system to their advantage, and since federal aid is funded by taxes, this misuse directly affects all taxpayers. Therefore, I believe there should be no changes made to welfare funding within the states until the huge problems in the system have been

Perhaps the two biggest products that welfare abusers buy are drugs (like marijuana, cocaine, etc.) and cigarettes. Everyday addicts take their welfare checks that they were given to with the intention of buying necessities for their families like bread and milk, but instead buy addictive content such as drugs and cigarettes. Another way addicts get their hands on their “wants” is that the addicts will sell their food stamps for money to obtain these addicting products. “Approximately 20 percent of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients reported having used an illicit drug at least once in the past year.” (Vitter 3).

The misuse of welfare is slowly increasing and it’s very harmful to our economy and society. It effects not only the working people who fund government assistance, but the user (or mis-user) as well. There is a general feeling that welfare misuse has skyrocketing rates, but according to advocates for welfare programs, the fraud rate is only about 2-3%. According to the 2010 US Census Bureau findings, there are 114.8 Million families in the US. With just over 34% of those US families “on welfare”, this means that approximately 39 Million homes receive monthly welfare benefits. 39 Million. Wow. The Federal government expects to spend about $430 Billion in 2013 on welfare expenditures. This averages out to roughly $11,025 annually per family or $945 per family per month. So if the fraud rate is only a tiny 2-3%, how much money could it really be costing us? Well…these seemingly low rates would mean that roughly 785,000 to 1.2 Million families are illegally receiving welfare benefits. At the average rate of $11,025 per year, this is costing the tax payers between $9.0 - $13.5 Billion dollars every year. Yikes. Welfare fraudulence can have a very negative effect on its recipients as well. Although the assistance may be very much needed and may help a lot, many people on welfare are beginning to see welfare as its own social class, a lifestyle. It can potentially eliminate work ethic and motivation. Fraudulent

The amount of money that the nation uses to support people on welfare significantly low compared to other things where the money is coming from taxpayers wallets. In his online article, “Here’s 6 Common Welfare Myths We All Need To Stop Believing”, Tom Cahill proves, “The University of California at Berkeley calculated that federal welfare programs cost taxpayers roughly $152 billion per year… 73 percent of that going to people with at least one part-time job.” It may seem as though this is an enormous amount but when it is compared to the cover-ups and other money used from us taxpayers, then the amount is minimal. Cahill also states, “In reality, the average monthly benefit paid out to SNAP recipients is a paltry $133 per person. TANF benefits averaged out to just $392 per household in 2010. And again, these benefits are only available for 5 years throughout a person’s lifetime. That isn’t exactly enough to break the budget of the largest economy in the world.” He also explains what the bigger portion of the tax money is used for when he says, “American taxpayers spend $1.5 trillion each year on welfare.., the fossil fuel industry, too-big-to-fail banks, performance-based bonuses for corporate CEOs, corporate jets, and other superfluous programs that run on the taxpayer dime. That’s ten times as much as the figure cited by UC Berkeley.” Again he explains in depth where all this money really goes, so the stereotype of

I think welfare should not be eliminated because you have people out there struggling and really need it. You have people who is in homeless shelters trying to make a way for their family. That need that boost to help them carry on with their lives. People do not understand the concept of struggling. Yes some people abuse it but not all. So I am against eliminating it. It also helps the children who sometimes do not eat at home have free meals at school. Giving them the beneift of the doubt.

Do you work hard for your money and family? So do other taxpayers. Are you disgusted to see your tax money go to support the people that are too lazy to work because that is what’s happening in our nation today. To be on welfare there should be rules such as taking drug tests and having monthly visits by the government.

This article is about the four main types of people that are receiving welfare. The first group of people are ones who have a temporary emergency and the next group of people are the complete opposite, these people are trapped in the system and never have the money or resources to get out. Because some of the people never have the resources to get out, others are in the system because they grew up that way and so did everyone else around them. Lastly, the final group of people receiving government aid are children, and they have no say in the matter. Whenever a conversation about poverty comes up it tends to lead to a topic on welfare. Whenever I talk about welfare, the topic of abusing the system comes up, and I usually agree and think people