Welfare Benefits - Research Paper Example

?The social welfare program began in the United s in the 1930s as a way of ensuring that there was a type of social cover for the elderly citizens of the nation. It was a measure by the government to counter what were considered to be threats to the way of life in modern America, and some of these threats included an increase in the number of the elderly, poverty, widows with no income of their own, and orphaned children. Although it was meant to help members of the American society deal with the crisis, which was affecting them at the time, many of its opponents believed that what it proposed was socialism; something that they believed was not in line with the American way of life. During this period, the greater part of women and people from minority groups in American society were excluded from getting any remuneration from the unemployment insurance and pensions for the elderly. In recent times, however, there have been reforms to the program and each state has its own welfare system according to the needs of its people. Since its inception, the provisions of welfare have been changing often due to the worries brought about by the situations of the economy as well as the changing roles of gender and the integration of minority groups into the American mainstream. During the 1950s, there were debates that focused more on how adequate coverage could be provided, moving away from the focus on which groups of occupation could be included, as had been done before. Since then all the changes in Social Security have been attempts to bring about a balance between the provision of adequate protection as well as the promotion of equality while providing this security (Beland, 2008). When the original Social Security Act is compared to those of European countries during the same period, one will find that it does not include the range of programs that had been developed in these countries. This is because when this Act was formulated, it was done with the anticipation that any additional programs of social insurance and income support would be put in place later. Examples of such expected extensions are the providing of benefits for spouses and children, which was passed in 1939 and the passing of programs of assistance and insurance for the disabled people in the 1950s. The development of programs in other areas took more of a problem-solving and incremental approach. Hence, the Medicare and Medicaid programs were endorsed in 1965 as a response to specific medical care needs of the elderly in society and the professed insufficiency of medical care under public support (Social Security Bulletin, 2006). The introduction of the Food Stamp program in 1964 and its later extensive growth came as a response to the evidence that there was persistent hunger and malnutrition in some groups within the population despite the fact that the society was generally affluent. The Supplemental Security Income program was introduced in 1974 as a national minimum income guarantee for those people who were aged, blind, and disabled in society and this was to counteract the differences in the advantage levels and eligibility values appropriate to these people under the assistance programs. The Food Stamp program is available to individuals and families who are eligible for payments under the Supplemental Security Income Program and to those deprived persons and families who are not suitable for the latter program. Another characteristic of the development of social welfare policy in the United States is the considerable degree of decentralization that is displayed and a mechanism for this is the federal system of government, which divides responsibility among the federal, state, and local governments. Some of these programs are funded and administered by the federal government alone; others involve only the state, with or without the involvement of local governments; and finally, others involve all three levels of government. This federal structure serves three main purposes in this welfare policy and these are the dispersal of power; mediating in contradictory claims; and finally, facilitating the elasticity that gives the opportunity for institutional and social change. In this case, it can be said that the welfare system is far too expensive and complex to be left in the hands of only a single level of government without the help of the others (King and Cecil, 2006). The devolution of the American social welfare policy ensures that the private sector plays a very significant role in the administration of government programs. The compensation activities under Medicare, and to an extent Medicaid, are handled by private organizations; insurance safety for workers’ compensation and impermanent disability insurance benefits has been place under the control of the private sector. A further observation into the decentralized social welfare system is that the various social welfare programs are not necessarily integrated with one another and an example of this would be Food Stamp Program and the Supplemental Security Income Program continues to be run separately, this applying to all the other programs. There have recently been urgent calls to reform the social welfare system of the United States so that it will be better able to face the long term funding problem that is likely to be encountered by the program (Avsar, 2010). Beginning from 2011 onwards, the program expenditure was expected to go beyond the currency revenues because there is an increasingly aging population that will result in a lower ratio of working people to retirees. Furthermore, the expected continuing low birth rate, when compared to previous periods in the last century, as well as increasing life expectancy will also pose a challenge to the funding of the social welfare system. Moreover, the government has already borrowed and spent from the Social Security Trust Fund, which were the accumulated surplus funds from the social welfare system and had been put aside to function as a backup in case of a funding deficit (Goss, 2010). Reforms have been instituted with the aim of ensuring that the number of people receiving welfare is reduced. This has been done through the putting of limitations to the duration that recipients are able to receive it before going back to work. The state of Alaska is known to have one of the most generous welfare packages in the United States. This is because it has immense oil wealth that enables it to fund its welfare system. In addition, Alaska is known to have programs for all those people who live within it, be they working or not. It has a system where its people are eligible to receive an annual amount from the state because of the oil revenues generated. While other states, such as California are working towards the reduction of the welfare received by its citizens, Alaska is moving in the opposite direction, increasing the packages. Since the reforms to the national welfare system, California has been working towards reducing the welfare burden from the state government. Among the measures it has taken has been a reduction of certain welfare programs (Mishak and Megerian, 2012). In addition, it has created limits for those who are eligible to receive it, in many cases excluding those who are not citizens. It can therefore be surmised that while the welfare system of Alaska has become overly generous, the one in California has moved towards reduction and in some cases the exclusion of certain members of the community. The social welfare system of the United States has, since its inception in the nineteen thirties, helped a large number of people through its various specialized programs. It has ensured that many people got through tough economic times and later got back to their own feet with the confidence to rebuild all that they had lost. It has brought relief to those who would otherwise have died from hunger, and it has kept a large number of people from sinking into abject poverty. One can say that this scheme was indeed a very visionary idea and that it has indeed been sustainable for over seventy years. References A primer: Social security act programs to assist the disabled. (2006), Social Security Bulletin, 66, 53-9. Avsar, R. B. (2010). Rhetoric of social security reform in the United States. The University of Utah). Proust Dissertations and Theses. Beland, D. (2008). The great social security debate. International Journal, 64(1), 115-123. Goss, S. C. (2010). The future financial status of the social security program. Social Security Bulletin, 70, 111-37. King, T. T., & Cecil, H. W. (2006). The history of major changes to the social security system. The CPA Journal, 76(5), 14-18. Mishak, M. J., & Megerian, C. (2012). California in retreat on social; in his new budget, a frustrated gov. brown cuts a swath through the state's renowned assistance programs. Los Angeles Times, pp. A.1. Read More