Essay On The Purpose Of Welfare

2001 Words9 Pages

The True Purpose of Welfare
When Welfare is brought up in most situations the one thing most people think who have not looked into it is that they are just getting everything for free. This is untrue about welfare its true intention when it was created was to help single mothers get by so they could care for their kids. In the 1990s a welfare reform limited the amount of cash assistance recipients received and increased limitations requiring people to keep a stable job("Ybarra"). The restrictions on welfare are limiting the ones who truly need the help from getting it.
The restrictions have their purpose to prevent people from misusing taxpayers money. Electronic benefit transfer or EBT for short is how people receive assistance while being on welfare. These EBT cards can be used at ATM to get cash which can then be used to purchase alcohol, tobacco products, and lottery tickets instead food, shelter, clothing, and utilities ("Baran"). This exploit has angered many taxpayers. The taxpayers are pressuring the government to do something about this misuse of welfare.
Exploiting taxpayers money is wrong. There was some data collected about how many people misuse welfare at …show more content…

For single mothers to qualify for welfare they are required to work outside of the home and act in a father­mother role or they forfeit the right to care for their own children (Mink, p. 103). This is wrong and deviates from what welfares original purpose was. Single mothers should not be required to work so many hours in a week to qualify for welfare. Another restriction is making single mothers do community service after being on welfare for set periods of time. The hours doing community service varies between how long they have been on welfare consecutively and not consecutively. The community service aspect is good for single mothers to not just be given money without having to give back to the