U10A1-12 - GLOBAL ISSUE – ANALYSIS (PHASE 3) - SEE DETAILS.

Introduction

Social welfare system aims at providing assistance to the needy persons and families. The types and assortment of welfare accessible to the individuals and families is mainly determined by the country, state or region. In the US, the federal government gives grants to every state through the Temporary Assistance for the needy families (TANF) program. The social welfare is broken into different programs. They include healthcare, food stamps, unemployment compensation, housing and children welfare. Again, in the US, case worker is allocated to every person or family that is applying for benefits to decide and confirm the applicants’ requirements (Scitovsky, 2013). The assistances available to a person differ from state to state. Additionally, the eligibility to enjoy benefits is determined by the financial prominence. Also, how the interrelatedness to the minimum satisfactory level in a specific state. The major dynamics that are included are the family, income and the disability. In every state, the welfare maybe termed as in diverse names, while serving different functions. Therefore, this can result to confusion when comparing one state with another. Besides, the qualification for welfare depends on the poverty line in a specific state. This gives room for adjustment to the tenets like the cost of living that is not standard across the globe. The major benefits mainly cover food, housing, childcare and medical care. The TANF can sometimes go beyond needs and obligation and provide assistance to complete efficiency upgrade and aid in paying the utility bills. In the US, some benefits include affordable medical care financing, and food programs. Additionally, nutritional assistance through the women, infant’s programs give a food-particular benefits to ensure that the expectant women and children have the accessibility to the healthy food options to promote growth and development (Scitovsky, 2013).

Background

In the current era, social welfare has significantly grown and developed into a welfare state. This is due to development in government by provision of minimal level of well-being and social support. The major developed countries welfare is mainly provided through by the governments that are funded by the tax income. Also, to lesser extent, the NGOs charity, informal groups, religious groups and inter-governmental groups are involved in welfare. The concept of social security has increased by providing the welfare states and inhabitants with numerous social services like the universal health care, unemployment insurance, post-secondary financing. These are some various social services that are provided by welfare. The welfare system can be traced back in the time of Roman Empire when the first emperor Augustus gave Cura Annonae to the citizens who could not afford to have food monthly. Additionally, other emperors such as Trajan expanded the welfare where there was establishment of retirement homes, public clinics, paupers’ graveyard among other welfare services. Besides, in 1000 AD maintained numerous program that supported the welfare of the people. Other traces of welfare English poor law of 1601 provided parishes with the role for providing welfare payments to the destitute. In 19th century poor law amendment act was introduced the system of work houses. Until 20th century, when the term welfare was coined to avoid negative connotation as it was related with concepts like charity (Scitovsky, 2013).

In 20th and 21st century, welfare system has developed, this is due to increase in the number of social problem that have cropped up. The major social problem that has risen include poverty, unemployment, and crime among other. This has been fueled by urbanization, and effects of post industrial revolution among other reasons. This has left many individuals to need welfare. Therefore, numerous social welfare services have been supported by various institutions to ensure the eradication of poverty as well as maintaining well-being of citizens. When the 21st century hit the country, the ideology of social welfare grew and led to the development of the social welfare state. The federal contribution of the security net programs for the middle class and the poor took the country back to the social protection philosophy. This paper examines theories of culture, citizen engagement and participation in the state welfare context (Powell, 2013).

Rationale of Selection

The social welfare is an important concept in the current era. The states have made tremendous steps in achieving the good welfare of their citizens. Again, international bodies have always aimed at helping the states and citizens of different countries to have welfare in their states. One of the main reason why the researcher chose this topic is that fact that welfare is used as one of the core founding stone to achieve the vision 2030 goals. These are goals by the United Nations to ensure that the poverty levels especially in the third world countries are significantly reduced. Again, the poor will always be present even in the countries that are developed. As a result, all the governments must ensure that they deal with the problem of destitution (Phillips, 2013).

Theories of Social Welfare

The first major school of thought is the consensus. They argue on the basis of gradual development of citizenships and social rights (Ng, 2004). Also, they see the welfare as a rational retort to the misery and degradation of life that is a result of industrial revolution of the 19th century. There is a major discord between those who emphasize rationality or morality in the progression. The rational see welfare and its policies as a consequence of rational solutions to particular social problems. On the other hand, the moral sees the policies, welfare as a morally right decision to the problems that were stirred by the industrial revolution. In other words, Ng (2004), postulated that social policies and welfare should be moral and rational to the target problem. Therefore, it is factual that this theoretical approach to the policies and welfare are founded on a consensual model of society. Also, there is deep agreement in the between the social problems and the policies set in place. As a result, there is no room for conflict between diverse groups in terms of values and over nation’s policies (Marsland, 2016).

The citizenship engagement is evident in this theoretical approach. The major dynamics in this theory is the morality and rationality. The two tenets are major presumptions of this theory. The rational see welfare and its policies as a consequence of rational solutions to particular social problems. On the other hand, the moral sees the policies, welfare as a morally right decision to the problems that were stirred by the industrial revolution. Consequently, the two concepts involve creating solutions for the policies and welfare. In this context, rational translates to seeing welfare and its policies as the rational decision. Therefore, the citizens are engaged as their wellbeing is catered and aided with the commodities that favor their problems. The morality involves seeing the policies and welfare as a morally right decision to the problems that were stirred by the industrial revolution (Lane, 2014).

Findings of Theoretical Framework

This study finds numerous benefits of welfare and it policies. The major benefits are in the healthcare sector. The healthcare major benefit from the welfare and the interrelated policies is by promoting health of the people. According to Laratta, (2009) there is a general interrelation between the income and healthcare. He further stated that people with no income and no healthcare are likely to live shorter compared to those with food and have Medicare. Additionally, the welfare has played a vital role in support of children. Also, it is evident that

they have played a role in lowering the levels of crime in the society. Better still, income welfare and its policies have played a great role in income distribution (Berg-Weger, 2016).

References

Berg-Weger, M. (2016). Social work and social welfare: An invitation.

Lane, M. (2014). Social welfare: Fighting poverty and homelessness. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning.

Laratta, R. (2009). From welfare state to welfare society: toward a viable system of welfare in Japan and England. International Journal of Social Welfare, 19(2), 131-141. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2397.2009.00657.x

Marsland, D. (2016). After the Welfare State: Real Welfare in a Free Society. Welfare or Welfare State? 196-224. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-24576-5_10

Ng, Y. (2004). The Direction of Welfare Change: Welfare Criteria. Welfare Economics, 47-64. doi:10.1057/9781403944061_3

Phillips, C. (2013). Teaching Animal Welfare. Animal Welfare, 129-135. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9219-0_7

Powell, J. L. (2013). Rethinking social welfare.

Scitovsky, T. (2013). Welfare & Competition. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.