Welfare

Welfare, economically speaking, refers to money paid to persons, from a government, who are in need of financial assistance, but, who are unable to work. In less charitable terms, it is income redistribution from the productive to the unproductive. The sum paid usually gives an income well below the poverty line, it is also usually has conditions attached, such as the need to prove one is searching for work or are that there is some condition, such as a disability or obligation to care for children that prevents them from working. In some cases recipients are even forced to do work, this is often known as workfare. A major problem with most welfare systems is the welfare trap. A universal welfare system is a standard component of socialism or systems heavily influenced by socialism. Welfare has quite a different meaning in formal or technical economics (see welfare economics), as in the term social welfare function. In this context it refers to utility or well-offness, either for an individual, or aggregated for a group. The field of welfare should also involve program evaluation to determine if the welfare programs are working, how well they may be working, how they could be improved.

Table of contents

1 See also 2 Further Reading 3 External Links

See also

\n*Welfare state\n*Social welfare\n*Welfare reform\n*Welfare advocacy

Further Reading

\n*Blum, B.B., & Francis, J.F. (2002). Welfare research perspectives: Past, present, and future, 2002 edition. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty. \n*Chase-Lansdale, P.L., & Duncan, G.J. (2001). Lessons learned. In G.J. Duncan & P.L. Chase-Lansdale (Eds.), For better and for worse: Welfare reform and the well-being of children and families (pp. 307-322). New York: Russell Sage. (ED 459 940) \n*Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (2002). America's children: Key national indicators of well-being 2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. \n*Gennetian, L.A., Duncan, G.J., Knox, V.W., Vargas, W.G., Clark-Kauffman, E., & London, A.S. (2002, May). How welfare and work policies for parents affect adolescents: A synthesis of research. New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. (ED 465 122) \n*Ripke, M.N., & Crosby, D.A. (2002). The effects of welfare reform on the educational outcomes of parents and their children. In W. Secada (Ed.), Review of research in education 26, 2002 (pp. 181-262). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. \n*Sherman, A. (2001, August). How children fare in welfare experiments appears to hinge on income. Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund. \n*Weil, A., & Finegold, K. (2002). Introduction. In A. Weil & K. Finegold, Welfare reform: The next act (pp. xxi-xxxi). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press. \n*Zaslow, M.J., McGroder, S.M., & Moore, K.A. (2000). The national evaluation of welfare-to-work strategies: Impacts on young children and their families two years after enrollment. Findings from the Child Outcomes Study. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (ED 450 963) \n*Zaslow, M., Moore, K.A., Trout, K., Scarpa, J.P., & Vandivere, S. (2002). How are children faring under welfare reform? In A. Weil & K. Finegold, Welfare reform: The next act (pp. 79-102). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press. \n*Zedlewski, S.R. (2002, Winter/Spring). Family economic resources in the post-reform era. The Future of Children, 12(1), 121-145. (ED 464 168)

External Links

\n*Welfare-to-Work Programs: Strategies for Success\n*Welfare Reform and Urban Children\n*Welfare to Work: Considerations for Adult and Vocational Education Programs\n*Interagency Collaboration: Its Role in Welfare Reform