Your opinions on welfare

I think there should be some sort of safety net for people, because sometimes life throws you incredible curve balls. Where I take issue with it is when people learn how to game the system, and are thus incentivized to under-achieve. It is simply easier to put yourself in a certain set of circumstances than go out and build something for yourself.

And yes, I agree that there should be drug testing of welfare recipients. I think there should also be a cap on how many children one can have to qualify for benefits--there are way too many people that view their children as a payday, rather than a human being.

 

It is simply a good system to provide everyone food to the table but in my country there are people living on welfare since doing some part time job isn't just lucrative. The more you earn the less you get money from the welfare system. That is a big failure which should be fixed as soon as possible.

 

Type in "drug test welfare cost" into google, many great examples from all sources, right left and centre.

People who advocate welfare drug testing fall into two categories.
1) People who will profit from it (drug test suppliers) or are pandering to try to gain votes.
2) Idiots or misguided people who get to feel morally superior when they get to clamor about how drugs addicts are getting their money without working. My favorite is the stay-at-home mom who puts this crap on her Facebook feed weekly... Oh the irony.

 

It isn't cost effective to offer welfare type programs that include drug testing and it doesn't change anything. There are a lot of wealthy and middle class drug users out there that get tax money in other ways.

 

I actually work with children, and we have a program called School Readiness which is basically state paid daycare for parents who can't afford it. Of 60 kids, only once have I ever seen a family pull the kind of shenanigans you're talking about, and it only took the state less than a month to figure it out. They had one child out of wedlock, and the father worked while the mother barely worked. But as soon as the state found out, they were cut off from the program. So, it doesn't seem to be nearly as frequent as many people claim. Would it be fair to the 59 other kids to shut the program down and send them home just because of the wrongdoings of a single family?

 

I think most who are on welfare really need it. Most of them are in an unfortunate situation and would rather not be in it. Here in Virginia, only famiiles with young children can be on TANFF...and they have to work either at a volunteer job or minimum wage job 40 hours a week. OF course you always have people that take advantage, like the CEO's that screw people out of their homes...and nickel and dime them to death.

 

Your state laws on this matter are likely an effect of Clinton era reforms. People have to be looking for work to get cash assistance in every state now I believe. Washington State also puts the lifetime limit for cash assistance at 5 years. After that regardless of how many kids you have you can not get it. This of course does not apply to food assistance or other programs. Welfare programs in the USA are already some of the most restrictive and least helpful in the world. Adding drug testing and certain other restrictions just seems like kicking people when they are down.

 

I think it's a good system to have in place, but it's definitely abused.

The state of Indiana just made it so that no adult without dependents who is physically able to work can receive food stamps unless they are working at least 20 hours a week and still meet the requirements to get assistance. I believe that's a step in the right direction and that a lot of other states need to follow suit.

What would also help is if there was a cut off for the amount of dependents that you can receive assistance for. I know people who just keep having kids so that they can get more assistance.