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Welfare Strict Requirements

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Should Welfare Have More Strict Requirements? Picture this, every year you are given $38,004. You don't have to work for it, and it’s not taxed, you’re simply handed this money to spend on basically whatever you want. This is welfare (Tanner). One hundred and twenty six different programs, all funded by the federal government, aim towards aiding low-income individuals. seventy-two of these programs provide cash benefits to those eligible, the remaining programs all fund low-income neighborhoods as a community rather than individuals. No one benefits from every single one of the seventy-two programs, but they can receive aid from a handful of them at any given time. Even though welfare seems very generous, and it certainly is for families …show more content…

Resulting in the others stereotyping welfare recipients as lazy and drug involved individuals, which there has been NO evidence supporting either of those statements(Pyke). For example, Tennessee recently concluded a drug screening on individuals who applied for welfare. The results revealed that less than one half of one percent of individuals failed the drug test. In other words, only 37 out of 16,000 people tested positive for drugs in their system (Pyke). Now given that not every state requires a drug screening, people slip through the cracks, again portraying welfare as a bad thing. With such a bad rep, a constant question is brought up to the surface; “Should welfare recipients be required to work(Pyke)?” In a newsletter Tim Brown talks about a study that was recently conducted by the Cato Institute where it was found that individuals are “mooching” more money off of the government than those who are working in a private sector (Brown). For example some people work a …show more content…

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

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