What Is Social Welfare

What is social wefare

Sandra Thompson

August 19,2015

What is social welfare?

When it comes to social welfare some people may not know what it is or how it helps people that are in need. Well according to (Merriam-webster.com), “social welfare is an organized public or private social services for the assistance of disadvantaged groups.” As the definition stated they are social services, which there are many services within the welfare department and there services can help from a wide range of people like single mothers with newborns or our senior citizens.

To name a few programs there is the WIC program that helps the mothers with new born babies, social security that most of the time the elderly get after they are retired, unless someone gets social security disability which in that case the person cannot work at all due to them having a terminal illness. But that is to just name a few programs. How is someone eligible for social welfare, well according to (Welfareinfo.org) “eligibility is determined using gross and net income, size of the family, and any crisis situation such as medical emergencies, pregnancy, homelessness or unemployment, then a case worker is assigned to those applying for aid. That person will gather all the necessary information to determine the amount and type of benefits that an individual is eligible for, then the federal government provides assistance through TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). TANF is a grant given to each state to run their own welfare program. To help overcome the former problem of unemployment due to reliance on the welfare system, the TANF grant requires that all recipients of welfare aid must find work within two years of receiving aid, including single parents who are required to work at least 30 hours per week opposed to 35 or 55 required by two parent families. Failure to comply with work requirements could result in loss of benefits.”

The programs within welfare help with different things for example the child support program helps families with state regulated child care placement that will help parents or whoever is taking care of the child time to have working or job training opportunities. Also the program will pay for partial childcare or sometimes even hundred percent of the childcare. Another program is the energy or utility assistance program, which helps people who cannot afford heat, electricity, and gas or water which is commonly known as LIHEAP. This program also sometimes pays part or hundred percent as well.

Then there is the Snap program also called food stamps this program helps people put food in their house. According to (Welfareinfo.org) “the food stamps program will help household acquire food for the home without having to use other sources of income on groceries. Food stamps are part of a very important program which allows for those households with very limited means to be able to use those means on other necessities. Food stamps provide the nutritional needs for the family. There are restrictions on what can be purchased with food stamps. Like for example you are not allowed to by hot food with your food stamps.”

Now with food stamps there are people who feel that people should have to take a drug test in order to even apply for food stamps because of the fact that some people will take advantage of the stamps. What I mean by that is some people will get little from there food stamps and sell the rest for money because they want to smoke weed or something else that is not benefiting the family. I personally know families who do that so I would agree with having to take a drug test or have to show I.D just to use the food stamp card.

Then there is the SRS program which is actually helping low- income citizens get off the other programs and helping them have a stable income. According to (Welfareinfo.org), “in order to qualify you must 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 timeframe. 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. A 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 and a commitment to complete accuracy and honesty during the program. All monetary resources must be disclosed. This includes cash within the home, in checking or savings accounts and items of value in possession such as jewelry or electronics.”