Reasons for Welfare Reform: From a High School Senior's Perspective
By: Nevaeh Conibear, Oakfield NY
I believe the current welfare system, as we know it, has demonstrably led to increased poverty, instability, and negative health outcomes for many low-income families, highlighting the need for a new more subtle and compassionate approach to social welfare.
Throughout studies on welfare reform, I found that in 2021 our federal, local and state government had spent over $1.1 trillion on welfare programs, plus an additional $744 billion in additional funding. Some of these welfare programs include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That is a lot of money that our nation could utilize to help our country in more important and different ways.
When welfare abuse and fraud exist, not only are these people stealing money from our federal and state government, but they are stealing from every taxpayer in the United States! In fact, in 2023 the Office of Management and Budget and the General Accounting Office reported that 9.2% of all federal welfare payments were shown to be abused and fraudulent, totaling $101 billion.
Perplexity fact check: The statement is partially true: OMB and GAO did report approximately 9.2% improper payment rates, totaling about $101 billion in major federal welfare programs in 2023. However, it is inaccurate to claim that all of these payments were abused or fraudulent—improper payments also include administrative errors and unintentional mistakes, not just fraud. The actual amount attributable to confirmed fraud is a smaller, unspecified portion of the total.
In order for this to happen, our policymakers for our federal, state, and local governments need to re-evaluate the current system and consider alternative strategies.
I’m not saying that everybody on welfare abuses it, but there are a great amount of people who are abusing the programs. In my opinion, I believe that it is not fair to those who need the help because they can’t get the full amount of assistance because of those who are abusing welfare programs.
