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Welfare Rights

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US Social Services: Where did they come from?

Columbia University

4.6 (8 ratings) | 291 Students Enrolled

Course 2 of 5 in the Social Policy for Social Services & Health Practitioners Specialization

The course probes the formation of social policy in the United States from its very first cultural and religious roots. Starting with the transition from hunter-gatherer groups to agrarian villages, the course will examine the passage of the Poor Laws that shaped social policy through the colonial period until the beginnings of the 20th century, when the challenge of making the industrial city livable gave rise to the development of the welfare state. As part of this transformation, the provider of social welfare shifted from the local community to the state to the federal government. The course ends with an exploration of the debate regarding the role of government in the late 20th century: should it foster entitlements or self-sufficiency? This course addresses issues of power, oppression, and white supremacy. The course is part of a sequence in social policy that has an HONORS TRACK. This track will prepare the learner for masters-level work in policy, which involves reading the literature, writing concise summaries and probing critiques. Over the sequence the learner will develop a policy analysis that will create a foundation for professional policy analyst assignments.

Skills You'll Learn

- Distinguish the values inherent in each social policy initiative, - Critique components of a social policy based on their effectiveness at meeting the goals stated in the initiative, - Develop social welfare policy analysis and reform proposals, - Differentiate alternative approaches to social policy problems, - Formulate practice strategies to overcome the historic biases in social welfare programs

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4.6 (8 ratings)

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From the lesson

Safety nets versus entitlement

As the US Welfare State developed, health care and social services expanded. Tensions developed over the role of safety net programs for the poor and the social policy debate centered on providing entitlements versus developing self-sufficiency.

Introduction1:41

Post-World War II6:02

Civil Rights7:14

War on Poverty4:57

Welfare Rights4:50

Great Society6:49

Civil Rights and Great Society by Professor Garfinkel6:08

Neoconservatism4:59

Changing Economy4:30

End of Entitlement6:23

Mothers' Pensions2:48

Rising Poverty3:21

Taught By

John Robertson
Policy Lecturer

Transcript

The central topic, since we began talking about the history of social welfare, and a topic that will remain with us all the way through the conversations about the welfare state and social welfare is the issue of stigma. Initially, stigmatized groups were considered amongst the unworthy poor, and you'll remember they included drunkards. They included criminals and people that were disruptive to the society. They included people that didn't work and were perceived as being able to work. That often included people who were mentally ill, people that had various forms of disabilities that weren't so obvious to the public. But no group of people has been more focused on stigma than women that have had children outside of marriage. So in the 1960s a movement grew up, the Welfare Rights Movement. And the Welfare Rights Movement was challenging the stigma of women who were raising children alone and had never married. So in 1960 if you worked in social welfare, you would go in the middle of the night and check a woman's home and see if there was a man in the house. And if there was a man in the house, you would remove her mother's pension her AFDC. In the 1960s we moved away from the law of settlement that require that a woman could only receive her mother's pension in the place where she was originally lived. And made it that you could travel anywhere in the country and still be eligible for AFDC. But the most important change was the end of the man in the house rule. So that now a woman who had children outside of marriage was no longer denied social welfare. And this led to a large increase in the number of people on the welfare case load because a marriage had become less central. More and more marriages were breaking down and women were raising children alone. So this expansion was always somewhat suspect in the society, this stigma of the unworthy woman remained. So a second major addition that happened in the welfare rights movement, was the fight for what was called the 33 and a third rule. And this meant that you could receive a mother's pension, and keep $33, equivalent to about $150 now, of your earnings. And then after that, a third of every dollar would be removed from your welfare check until you no longer needed the welfare check. So this one was a very sophisticated and advanced form of allowing people to work their way off of welfare. And this program was in place until the welfare reforms of the early 1980s. When again, the issue of stigma of women that were raising children out of marriage raised its head. So the public support for single parent families in the North East and the Midwest and the West rose. AFDC and food stamps were available to families to bring them above the poverty line. In the Southwest, and in the South there was still a limit on this. And benefits were very low, and often people remained in poverty. But in 1969, in a Northern city, with your AFDC benefit, and your public housing benefit, and your food stamp benefit, you could raise your family well above the poverty line and live a fairly comfortable life in the city. Over the years that pass, those benefits erode. So the Welfare Rights Movement also included the fight to create a general assistance program and outdoor relief program for single people who were living being on the street. And in this period of time, there was no homelessness. Because any person could find their way into a public housing situation and an income situation. So people that were homeless were people were truly transient and on the street. So just to close this unit, we will return to the question on stigma. And whether supporting women who are raising children alone is a valuable function in the society, or whether work requirements and other limitations should be placed on women to make them behave in ways that the society deems appropriate.

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