Nature And Extent Of Social Change Flashcards
Economic impact on society
Gap between rich and poor widened
Family life put under strain
OBRA (cuts targeted mainly fed spending on poorest)
Hit poorest working families hard, altered the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFFC)- fewer eligible and payments capped
Workfare
Claiming benefit was creating dependency and therefore undesirable
‘Workfare’ required at least one working parent before it paid out
Issues of Workfare
Often provided work below min wage, or less than benefit so families struggled
Found childcare hard to find- impossible for them to then work
Govt promised to provide childcare
OBRA and workfare
Tightened previous legislation that provided work projects and benefits for welfare payments
By Jan ‘87: 42 states running work programmes
1988 Family Support Act
Family only eligible for benefits if at least one parent worked
At least 16hrs a week; single parents expected to finish education and undergo job training, state would provide childcare
Social housing
Reagan slashed federal funding to build low cost housing
1978: fed govt spent $32.2 billion on low cost housing projects, by 1988 spending $9.2 billion
Result of less spending on social housing
Homelessness
1987: congress pushed through bill to give some federal help
FEMA
Federal emergency management agency run by Food and Shelter Programmed
What did FEMA do?
Matched state grants to local homeless projects half and half
Set up federal housing project for transitional housing
Medical care to homeless and education to children
Job training favoured homeless veterans
Impact of living and working conditions
Working families not on welfare or some allowances did benefit from lower taxes
Hit harder by changes to family credit regulations
Hit by rising interest rates which pushed up housing, mortgage and rent
Rates of foreclosure
Quadrupled
Less leisure time
Pressure to work harder
Youths worse off
