The Pros And Cons Of Government Aid

Government aid helps many people in the United States. Government aid is any federal program that financially supports disadvantaged people to ensure that they have a higher standard of living. Without government aid there would be a lot of people and families who could not afford to support themselves in order to have a livable lifestyle. The first form of modern government aid in America was proposed during the great depression in the year 1935. This government aid came in the form of the Social Security Act which was made in order to ensure that the elderly and unemployed could have a chance to have decent standard of living (Altmeyer). Since the Social Security Act of 1935 there has been multiple changes to Social Security, There has also been many other forms of

One of the biggest forms of government aid is Welfare. Welfare was once known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children but it is now known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families because of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which is also known as the Welfare Reform. In 2012 over three million people participated in welfare. This is a thirty thousand increase from the previous year, and this is a thirty percent increase since 2001. That number continues to increase each year therefore the budget for government aid must increase every year. In 2015 alone approximately 1.1 billion dollars was used to help support people and families who couldn’t afford to support themselves. Welfare is a wonderful thing for people who are actually disadvantaged, but because there are so many applicants for federal Welfare each year, it is very easy for people to commit welfare fraud. Welfare fraud is when a person falsifies information in order to wrongly be approved for federal welfare. There are many ways that people could commit welfare fraud. People often lie about their income in order to receive more money. In