Deck 6: Social Welfare Programs and Policies

Question 1

How does a "blaming the victim" attitude toward the poor influence the programs of homeless shelters?

Answer 1

By making many aspects of their programs mandatory shelters give the impression that homeless people will not take the initiative on their own to look for work or housing, enroll their children in school, or keep their living spaces clean. They must be forced to do so. By mandating budgeting classes, shelters suggest that people become homeless in part because they are irresponsible with their money.

Question 2

How does a "blaming the victim" attitude toward the poor influence foster care and adoption programs?

Answer 2

In foster care programs, human service workers sometimes fall into the trap of confusing poverty with neglect, which can lead to taking children away from their parents rather than helping parents to get out of poverty. In adoption programs, adoption workers sometimes assume that a rich adoptive family is better than a poor one simply because it is richer.

Question 3

What is meant by the sentence: "Single mothers face a poverty of time."

Answer 3

All working mothers are under pressure to juggle child care with work, but single mothers must do it alone. Affluent people can buy many of the services a wife used to do at home. A well-off family buys new clothes, sometimes from catalogs or online (which saves time but is often more expensive), buys food at the most convenient market or eats out, does laundry at home with its own washer and dryer or takes it to a dry cleaner, and drives one of the family's new, well-maintained cars. A financially pinched family, on the other hand, combs through second-hand clothes and mends clothes, searches for food bargains or stands in line at a food pantry, takes clothes to the Laundromat, relies on public transport, nurses a clunker car, or arranges a ride. The well-off family has enough savings to "splurge with the urge," using a checking account, credit card, or ATM to pay bills conveniently. The financially pinched family struggles to figure out how to make the money last through the week (or month), robs Peter to pay Paul, pays bills in person, and purchases money orders.

Question 4

Why does the official unemployment rate not reflect the true rate of unemployment?

Question 5

Discuss why wealth is particularly important in an economic crisis.

Question 6

Why is it hard to count the homeless?

Question 7

Discuss some of the social action that has been done around the issue of homelessness.

Question 8

How do welfare workfare (community service) programs differ from a regular paid job? What are the pros and cons of the workfare program?

Question 9

Describe the negative consequences of welfare reform.

Question 10

What are some of the behavioral requirements of TANF?

Question 11

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have focused the nation's attention on enlisted men and women and veterans, and the kind of services that they are receiving. What are the problems faced by returning soldiers and their families? How are we meeting or not meeting their needs?

Question 12

Middle class jobs have increased over the years.

Question 13

The wages required to reach the self-sufficiency standard set by Wider Opportunities for Women are two to four times the amount of the federal minimum wage.

Question 14

African-Americans are nearly three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be poor.

Question 15

Women earn 90 percent of men's wages.

Question 16

The fastest growing segment of the U.S. population is

A) People 75 years old or older.
B) Children 6 years old or younger.
C) Young adults.
D) Adolescents.

Question 17

The poorest group of elderly people is

A) white women.
B) white men.
C) black men.
D) unionized workers.
E) black women.

Question 18

Very few people who are employed full-time can be considered poor.

Question 19

An income that meets the Federal Government "poverty level" is enough to prevent malnutrition.

Question 20

In 2010, the official unemployment rate was 9.8% and was expected to remain at or near this level for the foreseeable future.

Question 21

Jobs that are traditionally defined as female jobs pay less than jobs traditionally defined as male jobs.

Question 22

Tax laws assist the rich by placing a cap on the amount of their income that can be taxed for purposes of Social Security.

Question 23

Social Security has done more to reduce poverty and income inequality than either the tax code or the welfare system.

Question 24

The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.

Question 25

The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program is an entitlement program.

Question 26

There was no time limit on the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.

Question 27

There is a federal five-year time limit on the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

Question 28

"Charitable Choice" in the TANF law encourages religious organizations to provide welfare services

Question 29

TANF grants are indexed to the inflation rate.

Question 30

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act encourages college education for welfare recipients.

Question 31

If the requirement that fathers of TANF recipients support their children were strictly enforced, mothers would have enough money to support their family.

Question 32

The Personal Responsibility Act requires single mothers to identify the father of their children.

Question 33

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a universal program available to the middle class as well as the poor.

Question 34

The WIC program gives cash to poor families.

Question 35

Most poor people receive food stamps.

Question 36

The tax program that gives working people money when they earn less than a certain amount is called

A) WIC-Women, Infants and Children
B) IRA -Individual Retirement Accounts
C) 401k-A pension plan
D) EITC-Earned Income Tax Credit
E) None of the above

Question 37

Studies have found that there is a low incidence of domestic violence among welfare recipients.

Question 38

The term "developmental disability" defines the level of functioning that makes people eligible for federally funded programs.

Question 39

Many single mothers are not covered by Unemployment Insurance because they are in part-time or temporary jobs.

Question 40

The majority of children in foster care are African-American.