Analysis of Family Welfare Book by Hays - Essay Example

Even after this, many of the welfare recipients were still unemployed. She reveals that those welfare clients who were still unemployed after training, or those for whom the training was deemed inappropriate, "were assigned an unpaid workfare placement" (Hays) These jobs consisted of sweeping city streets, serving food at school cafeterias, sorting papers for a county agency and making sure that they were working at least 30 hours a week in return for their welfare checks. Hays argues against this specifically for single mothers who are trying to raise children on their own. 2. Hays reveals the weaknesses in attempting to measure the success of healthcare reform through welfare rolls.

She states that although "the welfare rolls had been cut by more than half, from 12 million recipients in 1996 to 5 million in 2002, and most former welfare mothers were employed" (Hays). These figures seemed to prove to the American public that the welfare problems had finally been solved, but Hays argues that this is in no way true. She shows that there are still problems with the system, and still, questions are left unanswered about work, family, race, poverty, motherhood, and morality. There remained a large gap between what was reflected in the welfare rolls, and the reality that many welfare recipients faced. . 3.

Hays reveals that there are many unique challenges when moving a long-term welfare recipient into the workforce. She proves that the minimal opportunities available to these women and families, and the fact that the labor market discriminates according to race and sex makes it extremely difficult for them to find permanent employment. She faults the new welfare reform as assuming that there is potential for welfare recipients to make enough money to support their families by securing a job when this is usually impossible.

Hays reports, in the bottom percentage of American households make a wage sufficient to support a family. "Given labor-market realities in tandem with the responsibilities of single parenting, the Work Plan is not likely to lift the majority of these households above the poverty line "(Hays). 4. The Family Transition Program has both strengths and weaknesses according to Hays. She does not like how it tends to punish independence or responsibility among women, She believes that it rewards docility and compliance.

In many ways, she feels that this program is a form of government social control. She does agree that often the benefits outweigh this because families will be rewarded for their compliance and will receive increased benefits. She states that "while welfare mothers were spending 30 to 40 hours a week in all those seminars, training programs, and workfare placements, they also had to find someplace to put their kids" (Hays).