Exam One Study Guide Flashcards
How Did Social Welfare Evolve
Efforts to enhance or secure social welfare predate the existence of any professional activity that might be considered social work. Since the United States is still a relatively young country, we draw the beginnings of our attempts at social welfare back to our mother country, England. Several of the early attempts at providing assistance for the poor and insurance against social problems that were developed on the other side of the Atlantic had equivalent movements in the United States (or earlier on, the colonies)—sometimes simultaneously, sometimes after a delay of some years. Before there were government efforts to assist the poor, such tasks were typically handled by feudal landowners. Many people who needed help from those lords did not receive it, however, and there were also people in poverty who did not reside on someone’s property, and therefore had no one to whom to turn. In some of those cases, churches and charity organizations (which were frequently connected, as is the case today) stepped up to provide basic needs. Government was reluctant to get involved in addressing the plight of those in poverty; some people were concerned—again, much like today—that providing assistance with no strings attached would cause people to become dependent upon the government and lose any incentive to work their way out of poverty themselves. In the late 16th century, a series of poor harvests led to famine conditions. The Act for the Relief of the Poor in 1597 was England and Wales’ first attempt to provide a true plan for provision of basic standards of living for the needy. The English Parliament passed the laws in an effort to both “prevent starvation and to control public order” (Boyer, 2002).
why was the Elizabethan Poor Law important?
The 1597 law was quickly amended as the situation became more clearly dire. Severe inflation coupled with wage stagnation had reduced the purchasing power of the poor significantly even though those who were employed were working just as hard—and perhaps making equal or even higher wages—as in generations past. Since feudal landowners could not necessarily be trusted to take adequate care of their own workers, the government felt the need to intervene. The resultant policy, the Elizabethan Poor Law (officially the Act for the Relief of the Poor), is the most well-known early attempt at providing some basic benefits to destitute residents of England; it became law in 1601. The law wasn’t passed due to philanthropic sentiments on the part of the government, however; it is generally acknowledged that the major impetus for the law was the fact that the poor were becoming so numerous and their panhandling so publicly visible that it was a nuisance.
what did the Elizabethan Poor Law do?
Elizabethan Poor Law was therefore put into place to provide an opportunity for the poor to get basic necessities covered—enough, at least, that they wouldn’t be forced to steal or beg on the streets to survive. Benefit recipients were separated into three basic categories. The different categories were handled in unique ways and considered to be differently worthy of help. The following list begins with the group considered most deserving. Dependent children: Children of the poor were not blamed for their situation; after all, there was little (if anything) they could do to prevent their families’ economic situation. Since the families were seen as being unable to provide for the basic welfare of these children, they were put to work as apprentices. They would remain apprentices until young men reached the age of 24 and young women either reached age 21 or became married. Impotent poor: People who were deemed unable to work due to a physical or mental disability (or simple old age) were seen as somewhat less deserving than dependent children. There was still a prevalent idea that many people with disabilities had somehow been punished by God due to their own sinful acts (or those of their parents) (Sharma, 2003). However, the Poor Law also acknowledged that it was unrealistic to expect these individuals to work to earn their benefits. They could be placed in almshouses, which were basically shelters that gave them a place to stay and receive benefits rather than begging from passersby. The presence of people with disabilities on the streets was particularly distressing to the upper class who wished to enjoy their leisure time on the town, so getting this group out of sight was a crucial part of the law. Able-bodied poor: These individuals were physically and mentally capable of holding jobs but found themselves unemployed for other various reasons—systemic unemployment, lack of skills, discrimination, etc. They were provided jobs. Initially, they were not provided with shelter, but later the act was amended to provide those accommodations as well, making the workhouse the center of relief efforts for this category of the poor (Spicker, 2014; Socialist Health Association, n.d.).
Be able to trace the history of social welfare
Brief overview of the Charity Organization Society
The first Charity Organization Society in the United States was established in Buffalo in 1878. Like many social welfare agencies then and now, it struggled to make ends meet, at times having to cut programs or staff due to budget shortfalls (Katz, 1996, p. 45-46). To keep in line with the mission of helping the poor while also benefiting society as a whole, COSs had to abide by five self-imposed rules:
Let no one go without the most basic needs (e.g., food, shelter)
Do as little “moral harm” as possible to both the recipient of assistance and to the larger community
Provide the assistance for as little time as is reasonable
Fund such programs through as small a tax obligation as possible
Inform the community that the needs of the poor will be handled in this way, so they do not need to take it upon themselves to further contribute to charitable causes (Katz, 1996, p. 72).
brief overview of the Reform Movement
What did the reform movement do?
Some historians have even labeled the period from 1830 to 1850 as the “Age of Reform.” Women, in particular, played a major role in these changes. Key movements of the time fought for women’s suffrage, limits on child labor, abolition, temperance, and prison reform.
Brief overview of the New Deal
Roosevelt had promised that he would immediately get to work restoring America to prosperity, famously talking about making a noticeable turnaround within the first 100 days of his term. He put a lot of temporary relief programs into place immediately, having promised “a New Deal” for America upon being elected. His efforts helped to revive American confidence that there was a chance to pull out of the Depression. Under the New Deal, Roosevelt established a number of programs that sought to alleviate the conditions of the economic disaster through the provision of jobs in programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). The CCC sent young men to do government work in rural areas, national parks and forests, while the WPA worked mostly with young men who were still in school and wanted part-time jobs (Katz, 1996). Several other programs were active in providing either jobs or temporary financial assistance as well.
Brief overview of Welfare Reform
Under President Obama, whose first term started in 2008, the most significant social welfare reform law was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often called Obamacare (particularly by its detractors). This law will be covered further in Chapter 12, but is likely to go down in history as the signature legislation of President Obama’s tenure. It continues to be a point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in our government, as Republicans have called for votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act dozens of times in Congress, while aspects of the law continue to be rolled out to more positive reviews than negative ones. Since the passage of the ACA, 10 to 12 million more Americans have medical insurance coverage, and no one can be refused insurance coverage due to a preexisting condition.
Brief overview of the Social Security act
In 1935, as part of FDR’s “Second New Deal,” the Social Security Act both established a series of programs meant to provide for the well-being of Americans in a variety of circumstances and established a set of rules and guidelines for states to follow in order to receive the federal funding necessary to pay for these initiatives. Three categories of programs were established:
Public assistance: This category required the passage of a means test, as noted earlier in this chapter, to determine if one qualified. If someone was in great enough financial need, then they could obtain the assistance, provided they were part of the group it was meant to serve. Programs under this umbrella are aimed at alleviating poverty.
Social insurance: These programs were more reflective of the institutional view of social welfare, which recognized that some programs needed to be in place permanently and not simply providing a band-aid effect. This category was established due to the recognition (as recently vividly illustrated by the Great Depression) that sometimes people experienced hardship due to events that they could not prevent or change. Programs in this category intend to prevent poverty.
Public health and welfare services: The government established itself as the provider of particular social services that had previously been handled by private organizations.
Brief overview of Medicare, (years enacted)
Health care benefits were made available to the aged, with the basic benefits free of charge and some others available for a fee. 1965
Brief overview of Medicaid
Established in 1965 (like Medicare), Medicaid provided people on public assistance with access to medical care free of charge
Brief overview of Food Stamps/SNAP
Food Stamps began as a pilot program in several states thanks to an executive order by President John F. Kennedy, and they were made permanent by his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1964 (Edelman, 2012; U. S. Department of Agriculture, 2014). By 1974, all counties in every state had to adopt a Food Stamps program, which made it “the country’s single most effective intervention against poverty” and “unquestionably a successful public policy story” (Abramsky, 2013, p. 74; Edelman, 2012, p. 12). Even conservative-leaning President Richard Nixon helped the program to expand, though at the time families had to pay a fee to begin receiving Food Stamps benefits; this requirement was finally eliminated by Congress in 1977 (Abramsky, 2013), putting the full burden of funding the program on the federal government. In 2019, 38 million Americans used SNAP benefits (Hall, 2021). The benefits were originally known as Food Stamps because they were literally stamps or coupons that people exchanged for food. When paying at the register, the individual would use the number of stamps necessary to cover the cost of the food. Obviously, this caused a bit of a stigma because it was clear to see who was paying for their food with stamps, so everyone in line and the cashier would know the customer was poor. By 2004, however, all Food Stamp Program recipients had been transitioned to the use of an EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card, which helped to lessen the attention they drew at stores and made them less likely to be embarrassed about the reaction of others. This also led to the renaming of the program to SNAP in 2008.
How does social work differ from other helping professions?
Why do people have problems according to social welfare?
What is the systems/Ecological Framework
Primary approach for social workers, renewed focus on sociological perspective. Consists of wholeness, relationship, and homeostasis.
