Is Welfare Enough?

            In Truly Disadvantaged by Wilson, he talks about the issue of causality. He discusses war on poverty and the effects of the safety net programs. With what I got out from the reading and the presentation in class, what Wilson is saying that there’s no data that the safety net programs lead to things getting worse. By helping many individuals and families who needs assistance, I think the federal and state a government kept a lot of people out of poverty. I believe we have a moral obligation to help the poor. We don’t help the poor to not only improve the economy, but we help them because it’s the right thing to do. Here is a chart showing the percentage point changing in the supplemental poverty measure. 

This includes benefits from social security, SNAP, WIC, LIHEAP, etc. This chart came from the U.S census Bureau in 2011 and the report shows that “social security kept 15.3 million people out of poverty, unemployment insurance kept 1.7 million people out of poverty, and SNAP kept 4 million people out of poverty in 2012” (USA TODAY). Just by looking at that number and seeing how much it helped many individuals out of poverty says a lot. I do believe these programs are very helpful as you see but with these programs, I don’t think it’s enough to help themselves to overcome different and a more serious problems that these individuals can come up against. I also think it’s somewhat difficult to see who actually needs the assistance or not. Yes, everyone needs help but are they qualified enough? There may be others that need more assistance then others do.

            With my own personal experience, I got an opportunity to intern at the Kendall Health Department in Yorkville, Illinois. As a community action intern, I worked with different individuals and families to help them access community resources, public benefits, and other services necessary to help maximize income and stabilize households. Before my internship, I didn’t know much of the safety net programs and which ones were what. As I begin to work there, I mostly worked with LIHEAP (low income home energy assistance program) to help keep families safe and healthy with their energy cost, especially during this cold time of year. I also worked with WIC. This program is to provide health food and nutrients for pregnant women and young children. This program is available to low-income households. For every program that I used, I did intake procedures to determine client eligibility for the agency programs. This internship helped me to maintain accurate and updated client records and files. With my experiences there, although I do not judge, there are many clients that come in and cheat their way around the system. It was easy for me to spot on what they really needed help what. There are people who come in and may lie about certain things who are not eligible for these programs. On a better note, there are people that come in who actually need the help and with their eligibility for these programs, they were able to move forward.

            In class, Professor Weffer discussed the differences of how the programs were in 1960s and the differences it is today. Today, obviously poverty still occurs but with the government assistance, these programs helped the individuals and it definitely has gotten better. If this hasn’t existed, then a large percentage of Americans would be poor. I believe there are other important effects of this, especially on children. Children obviously need the food and health care. Poor children are allowed to get the nutrients they need, it’s also a way to improve it through the food stamp program. With nutrients, the children are more likely to be healthy and that healthy child still needs check-ups, shots, dental care, etc. so they can stay healthy. I believe it’s so important to have access to preventive care. Despite these important effects, We need to do better in identifying that could be effective in assisting these poor children to overcome the difficult obstacles and in supporting more adults who are poor to have a better chance of succeeding in the labor market. For poor children and families, programs like medicaid, food stamps, LIHEP, etc. are helpful, but I don’t think it’s enough to help themselves to overcome different and a more serious problems that may occur. Yes, these programs are very beneficial to those who needs help, it also improved the lives of less fortunate Americans and we should focus on more ways for improvements.



http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/17/2633881/poverty-data-shows-importance-safety-net-programs-millions/