87% of Americans believe you should work for welfare. That is a startling statistic when compared with so much else that is contentious in welfare policy and programs. The survey was conducted by AEI/Los Angeles Times and is detailed on the Welfare Opinion Page. Americans know intuitively that work is the best solution for poverty and the statistics bear this out. The poverty rate for non-working adults is 26% compared to those working of 2% (See U.S. poverty statistics).
Work Penalty in Welfare Programs
Perhaps the worst attribute of our current federal welfare system is that it discourages work. This occurs because increased wages often result in a disproportionate drop in welfare benefits. In other words, a welfare recipient can lose more than $1.00 in benefits for each additional $1.00 they earn from a job. The specifics are detailed on the Welfare Examples Page. The work penalty embedded in the welfare system is a primary reason many feel the system traps the poor in lives of dependency.
The work penulaty is the unintended consequence of the invention of 13 independent, uncoordinated programs (See Safety Net Programs Page). Most Americans are appalled when they find out there is a work penalty imbedded in our welfare system and don’t understand how such a system has not been reformed over the years. But the reality is that without the public pushing Washington for reform there is simply not the political will for leaders to take on the challenge (More on Welfare Reform Page).
The Value of Work
Americans know that work is the foundation for good middle class lives and defines the cultural fabric of the nation. Perhaps Bill Clinton said it best: “I used to get up in the morning and watch my mother get ready to go to work. And we had a lot of trouble in my home when I was a kid, and she still got up every day, no matter what the hell was going on, and she got herself ready and went to work….. It kept food on the table, but it gave us a sense of pride and meaning and direction….I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for a child to grow up in a home where the child never saw anybody go to work…. I know that it’s sometimes hazardous to extrapolate your own experiences…. But on this I don’t think it is.” (more on Poverty Quotes Page).
Historically America has always felt strongly about work. Here are the words of Jason Pearle from the book American Dream describing FDR and the great depression. “Americans think people should earn their own way and resent it when adults, including single parents, do not work and rely instead on welfare. So fundamental is the commitment to work and self-sufficiency that President Roosevelt, in his 1935 message to Congress accompanying the original Social Security Act, found it necessary – even with Americans in the grip of the Great Depression – to declare: ‘the lessons of history . . . show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber’ and that welfare was a ‘narcotic’ and a ‘subtle destroyer of the human spirit.’ He even said that ‘we must and we shall quit this business of relief.’”
Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much these days. They are split between their desire to see welfare spending and programs expanded or contracted. But one thing nearly everyone agrees on is the importance of work and the desire of our welfare programs to put work as a central pillar of our policy and programs. Americans generally believe people should work for welfare.
Government programs with a work requirement
The TANF program haw a work requirement. TANF stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and pays cash to low-income Americans. The program is one of the oldest welfare programs in the federal government and is structured to move welfare recipients from welfare to work over a 5 year period.
A full description of the TANF program and its history is presented in the TANF Page. The program and its predecessor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), has an over 50 year history of which the last 15 years has included a work requirement. TANF caseloads dropped precipitously upon the addition of the work requirement which was the goal of reform. Supporters tout these statistics as proof that work requirements moved people off of welfare and into jobs. But critics argue that there were not enough jobs to go around and that too many welfare recipients merely dropped out of the program without work and were forced to seek help elsewhere. The debate continues to this day, but it is not very instructive. That is because TANF represents less than 5% of federal expenditures on welfare and is too small to be influential in the overall system.
The SNAP Program also has a work requirement. Generally able-bodied adults between 18 and 50 who do not have any dependent children can get SNAP benefits only for 3 months in a 36-month period if they do not work or participate in a workfare or employment and training program other than job search. However, this requirement is waived in some circumstances.
Something for something versus something for nothing
A majority of Americans feel work should be a condition of receiving welfare. Not only does our welfare system not have this attribute but instead we spend billions of dollars as pure hand-outs and ask for nothing in return. We should seek to get something for the dollars we spend on welfare for the good of society and for the good of the individual. Society is advanced by the individual’s growth in life skills, job training and education and we should seek this growth as we pay out welfare dollars. Our low-income neighborhoods have many needs that the poor can help address, such as child education (reading to kids as an example), child care and neighborhood improvements. We should add something for something to our welfare system (more on Welfare Reform Page).