Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and
Social Security Income
According
to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2013, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) is the American welfare system meant to support the needy and is a state
and federally funded programs. To qualify in Massachusetts, you must meet
certain requirements including having at least one dependent child under 18 or
19 (including teen parents) or be a pregnant woman with no children who is
within 120 days of delivering (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2013). Additionally, you must meet income and asset
limits, be a U.S. citizen or a legal immigrant and live in Massachusetts
(Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2013).
Access
to services including substance abuse, mental health services, and domestic
violence specialists, job training, job search, and placements into jobs,
access to basic education, English for employment, Graduate Equivalency Diploma
(GED) assistance, work readiness, and skills training are also offered by the
TAFDC offices (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2013). The time limitation of this
program is 24 months of assistance in any continuous 60-month period and the
requirements of the program may require participants to work or participate in
work-related activities, such as job training (Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
2013).
The intent is to help those in need, but also to motivate and enable them to get
off the system. Liberals believe that welfare is necessary to protect the poor,
bring equality to American families and economic life (StudentNewsDaily, 2010).
Contrastingly, conservatives believe that long term welfare is not feasible or
economically advisable and that more opportunities should be provided to the
needy to make it possible for those in poverty to rise out (StudentNewsDaily,
2010).
Supplemental
Security Income (SSI) on the other hand is a Federal income supplement program
that is funded by tax revenues (Social Security Administration, 2013). The
design of this program is to help aged, blind, and disabled people, who have
little or no income and aims provides cash to meet basic needs for food,
clothing, and shelter (Social Security Administration, 2013). There are also
work incentive programs to help people get off disability or return to
meaningful employment, as well as, incentives to students who work (Social
Security Administration, 2013).
This program was specifically designed to offer assistance to those in need that are
disabled or not likely to be able to work due to impairment, but are not
necessarily old enough for social security (Social Security Administration, 2013).
The liberals believe that reduction of benefits or changing the social security programs would reduce the benefits to the needy and poor and be a disadvantage to
the people (StudentNewsDaily, 2010). While the conservatives believe that the
current social security system is faulty and needs to be changed, that collapse
of the Social Security is imminent if changes are not made, and could be “made
more efficient through privatization and/or allowing individuals to manage
their own savings” (StudentNewsDaily, 2010).
By
signing smaller programs like SSI, TFDC, and Social Security the government is
able to exclude people whom they do not feel are deserving of benefits. The
policies themselves are not very similar other than they both give money to
those without and allow you access to the state health plans and benefits. In
my opinion, these are very conservative policies, in fact, that it supports
less government and more self-sufficiency and aligns the belief that all social
welfare policies are compromises to these American attributes. However, this is
also a liberal policy because it provides support for the needy through social
policy and government. Liberalists, however, would support a better social network
for the people through government intervention and social policy. I would say
the underlying commonality is the belief of each party is that their idea would
better support the people in need and lead them from poverty.
References
Mass.gov.
(2013). Department of Transitional Assistance. Mass.Gov. Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dta/cash-assistance.html
Social
Security Administration. (2013). Supplemental Security Income. Social Security Administration.
Retrieved from www.ssa.gov/ssi
Student
Daily. (2013). Conservative vs. Liberal. Student
Daily. Retrieved from http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/
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