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Luke Crumpler
Mr. Bradley
Government
19 October 2016
Welfare Reform
The idea of having a good welfare started in the first line of the constitution where the
founding fathers wrote promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves. During the great depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was on a mission to
make enough jobs so that unemployed Americans could find work. In the meantime he also
supported the idea of federal aid for children and other people as well. In 1935 Roosevelt was
able to finally establish the first national welfare system in the United States. Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was created by congress in 1996. TANF is federally
funded while being run by the states and provides money for low income parents that have
children. Welfare should enforce welfare recipients to work or train a minimum of 15 hours a
week because people are taking advantage of the system, high paying welfare checks lowers
recipients incentive to get a job, and the government is cracking down and trying to get extra
money to use for better causes.
Instead of promoting self sustaining work, welfare seems to make it to easy to make
welfare your soul source of income, which is not the goal of welfare. Studies of mothers leaving
welfare show that around 20 percent of them go through long periods without work and many
more are without jobs from time to time (Sawhill). This shows that many people are often not
working for periods of time and continuing to receive welfare. Even if the welfare recipient has
another source of income in the family, they dont have to say anything, but will continue to

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receive checks when the money could have really helped someone in deep poverty. Part of the
reason was that, under the reform, states could redirect that federal money to programs other than
welfare, such as child care, college scholarships and programs that promote marriage as a way to
prevent poverty (Ehrenfreund). States can use the welfare money that is used on non-working
recipients on other issues that will actually make a difference like child care, so that poor
mothers and fathers can go to school and get training without worrying about if their kids are
getting watched. All the states need to pass bills enacting minimum hours and use the surplus
money on other programs that need more funding.
In some cases the Government has given out real salaries worth of welfare and it is too
much and needs to be split to more programs. Recent research finds that because of welfare
reform, roughly three million American children live in households with incomes of less than $2
per person per day, a global metric of extreme poverty (Kristof). These families in deep poverty
often live straight of welfare because they are not able to get a job or start training because they
are left staying home, taking care of their kids. Working should be made a more attractive option
than welfare, but thats hard when many welfare programs give an income of $43,330 or $20.83
an hour (Emery). Welfare programs in some places give outrageous amounts of money to certain
families. If I didn't have to work and I made 45 thousand dollars a year, then sign me up because
that's a lot of money to pay someone who isn't really helping out with society.
The U.S. Government is actually realizing people should be required to work as some
states have already imput laws that require work hours for welfare recipients. During the last
recession, President Obama allowed states to suspend a requirement that made able-bodied
adults without children work at least 20 hours per week or participate in a training program to
receive benefits for more than three months (Jeunesse). Obama helped save lots of money due to

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the fact that he was able to get a much bigger percentage of welfare recipients to have paying
jobs so they are not living directly from welfare. It required a certain percentage of welfare
recipients in states to be working, and said that those who couldnt find jobs would have to
participate in community service or get vocational training. Those who didnt work or volunteer
would eventually be kicked off the welfare rolls (Samuels). A lot of people have noticed how
easy welfare is to receive and the government has been cracking down on people who have used
loopholes to stay on welfare or receive even more money from their welfare checks.
Some may ask how is a mother or father would have enough money to pay for job
training and child care when all they are only receiving small amounts of money in welfare
checks. Having requirements for welfare recipients may make some lives harder as it may force a
single mother to have to pay for child care which is very expensive, but having these
requirements will help push Americans to want to work and get out of the poverty they are in.
The purpose of Calworks is to help a family transition smoothly from the immediate, short-term
child care needed as the parent starts work or work activities to the stable, long-term child care
necessary for the family to leave and remain off aid (Child care). This program is for families
that help parents work or go to school and get money so that they can take care of their children
without needing to spend their welfare checks on keeping parents kids safe. Welfare is one of
the most important systems America has in place, and it should is only as an aid for people to get
money until they can get back on your feet, get a job, and start making sufficient money to
support yourself and children
The government should make more requirements for those on welfare and should
definitely inforce these americans to work for a minimum of 15-20 hours a week. The states that
enforce the law should look to use the money that would be wasted on non needy families for

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issues that could really make an impact on the economy or the education or health of the state.
America has always been about making sure as many people as possible are self-sustaining and
if they are not we as Americans need to teach and train the unemployed to become prepared to
work in an environment they havent before.

Luke Crumpler
Work Cited
"Child Care." Department of Social Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
Ehrenfreund, Max. "How Welfare Reform Changed American Poverty, in 9 Charts."
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 22 Aug. 2016. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.

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Emery, Eugene. "Do 'common Welfare Programs' Pay the Equivalent of a $20.83-per-hour
Job?" Politifact. N.p., 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Jeunesse, William La. "States Moving To Restore Work Requirements For Food Stamp
Recipients." Fox News. FOX News Network, 30 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
Kristof, Nicholas. "Why I Was Wrong About Welfare Reform." Sunday Review. N.p., 18 June
2016. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
Samuels, Alana. "The End of Welfare as We Know It." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,
1 Apr. 2016. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
Sawhill, Isabel V., R. Kent Weaver, and Ron Haskins. "Welfare Reform Reauthorization: An
Overview of Problems and Issues." Brookings. N.p., 29 Nov. 2001. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.