Chapter 19
Social Welfare in the United States
What is Social Welfare?
Two Types of Programs
What Makes Social Welfare Programs Different in United States?
Welfare Act
Wednesday, Aug 14, 1935, 12:00 AM
Washington, DC, United States
Medicare Act
Thursday, Jul 1, 1965, 12:00 AM
Washington, DC, United States
So What Is the Issue With These Programs?
What Can Be Done?
Replacement of Aid to Families with Dependent Children
What Are Some Present Day Examples?
Vocabulary
Majoritarian politics: A policy in which almost everybody benefits and almost everybody pays (508).
Client politics: A policy in which one small group benefits and almost everybody pays (508).
Charitable Choice: Name given to four federal laws passed in the late 1990s specifying the conditions under which nonprofit religious organizations could compete to administer certain social service delivery and welfare programs (510).
Insurance program: A self-financing government program based on contributions that provide benefits to unemployed or retired persons (513).
Assistance program: A government program financed by general income taxes that provides benefits to poor citizens without requiring contribution from them (513).
Means test: An income qualification program that determines whether one is eligible for benefits under government programs reserved for lower-income groups (513).
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): A provision of a 175 law that entitles working families with children to receive money from the government if their total income is below a certain level. The program was expanded in the early 1990s (517).
Service strategy: A policy providing poor people with education and job training to help lift them out of poverty (519).
Income strategy: A policy giving poor people money to help left them out of poverty (519).
OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance): Monthly payments to retired or disabled people and to surviving members of their families; another name for Social Security.
Medicare: Federal government pays for part of the cost of medical care for retired or disable people covered by Social Security.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI): Cash payments to aged, blind, or disabled people whose income is below a certain amount.
Food stamps: Vouchers, given to people whose income is below a certain level, that can be used to buy food at grocery stores.
Medicaid: Pays medical expenses of persons receiving TANF or SSI payments.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Payments to needy families with children; replaced the AFDC program.
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC): Former federally funded program that made payments to poor families with children.
QUIZ
1. Name two factors that make social welfare different in the United States than opposed to other countries.
2. What event in the early to mid 1900s influenced the Social Welfare Act of 1935?
3. What party supported the Medicare Act of 1965?
4. What is a problem on the rise when it comes to Social Security?
5. What is one of the proposed fixes for the Social Security problem?
6. How much had Social Welfare caseloads declined since the passing of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program in 2003?
7. Name one present day example of Social Welfare in America.
8. Service strategy is a policy providing poor people with __________ and job training to help lift them out of poverty.
9. An insurance program is a self-financing government program based on contributions that provide benefits to unemployed or __________ persons.
10. A means test is an income qualification program that determines whether one is __________ for benefits under government programs reserved for lower-income groups.