Welfare can be defined as statutory procedure or social effort designed to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people in need (Dictionary.com). The key word is “designed”; just because it was created to do this it does not mean that it does. Today, many welfare recipients exploit the benefits they receive far beyond its original intention. There are also many citizens who truly need every benefit they receive, but even so this system is far too large to support. Before we delve into why this system needs reform, let us first tell you a little about its history and how it works. Before welfare was created, the government had a very similar system in which social workers gave aid by trying to train the poor to have better …show more content…
This department first determines if a person or family qualifies for welfare depending on whether their household is at or below the poverty line (this is determined by the state) (Bodine). If qualified, the individual or family could receive assistance in a number of ways; the first is directly with money, second is food stamps, and the third is child care. However, in each state the amount of aid differs. All it takes to get this aid is an application that can be easily filled out online or even sent in via …show more content…
The main reasons are it is easy to abuse and it is simply too expensive for our economy and our taxpaying citizens to support. The first topic to focus on is abuse. There are people who are receiving benefits, such as food stamps or other aid, when they are more than capable enough to take care of themselves. There was a man who won the lottery and still continued to receive food stamps and thought that he was not doing anything wrong in doing so. There was a thirty-two year old woman who called into a Texas radio station to justify her wrongful use of welfare. She is married, a mother, and is not even trying to work. After stating her long list of benefits, including subsidized housing, Christmas presents for her kids, an “Obama phone”, and “paycheck”, she asked the radio show hosts, “Why should I work?” Her husband also receives benefits and works occasional jobs. In addition to completely scamming the system, she criticized people who do work because she does not have to do anything, can visit her friends all day, and smoke weed and still get paid; she said people who work are just trying to prove they are better people (KLBJ). There are many, many more examples of this type of entitlement everywhere on the internet; simply searching “welfare abuse” on YouTube pulls up hundred, even thousands of examples instantly. Other than these actions being completely illegal, they are incredibly unfair to the people who do work and