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The Welfare Reform Act Essay Example

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The Welfare Reform Act Essay Example
The Welfare Reform Act

Victoria L .Schott

Axia Online College

The Welfare Reform Act was put into place in August 1996 by Bill Clinton. The Welfare Reform Act is a law that changes how governmental finances are administered. Changing federal funding to states from an open ended entitlement to a series of capped block grant allocations( Leighton, Coughlin,2010). It also sets time limits on people receiving cash assistants then after the time is up they can no longer receive cash assistance for the rest of their life. The Welfare Reform Act also requires most recipients to participate in some kind of job program or educational program like, job training, community service, educations classes. The Welfare Reform Act also allows the government to collect unpaid child support for the family applying for the government assistance. The Welfare Reform Act also denies illegal immigrants from getting Social Security and receiving food stamps and other government assistance(1996, The Welfare Reform Act).

The Welfare Reform Act was put into place to replace Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Now with Aid to Families with Dependent Children if a family was eligible they automatically received Medicaid. With the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families it has a time limit on receiving benefits, a person can only receive 5 years of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and receiving Medicaid has to be filed separate and there separate guidelines for each one plus a person can stay on Medicaid for a lifetime if they need to be.

When the Welfare Reform Act was put into place the government had a fear that people would not total understand that they could still receive Medicaid if they did not receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. With stricter guidelines for a person to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families the government is trying to make the people not to depend on
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