Outline
Topic: Tackling Poverty and Dependency: Restructuring the Federal Public Assistance System to achieve a more substantial outcome
I. Introduction. How can the historical perspective on welfare reform provide insight concerning the problems of poverty and welfare dependency?
a. We can use the historical perspective of the welfare state to seek understanding in combating poverty and exclusion, asking ourselves “How do we implement more effective policies in reducing poverty, and give them the priority they need?”
b. Poverty is viewed as both a negative personal and social condition—labeling the poor as “deserving” and “non-deserving.”
c. The policy Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) was created for widowed, white women with dependents—“deserving”
d. The policy changed to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the demographics shifted to predominately women of color, inner-city residents, and a substantial portion of them were never married.
e. Growth in poverty, increased welfare enrollment, public conflict, racism sparked a change in policy
II. What are the implications and problems of the new welfare reform—Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program?
a. What is the focus of the new welfare policy?
i. Changes in social policy: time limits, transitional benefits, state flexibility to create programs
ii. Welfare-to-work. Activate the initial transition into employment, leaving individual initiative and market forces to drive subsequent market mobility; 2 problems: This concept
1. Implies that skills training to sustain employment is not of value
2. Either remove the administrator from the “problem,” and/or places the “problem” in an unstable environment
3. Primary policy goal: se ...