Origins of Welfare

In the early 1900’s welfare existed but was not as well established as it is at this point. The help that was provided by local government consisted of the following, food, fuel, and in some cases cash, depending on the status of the resident. Under the condition that residents had to work under deliberate harsh labor i.e., building roads and chopping wood. In 1909 President Theodore Roosevelt requested a conference to address the problem of impoverished single mothers, their children, regarding and the high cost of institutions. Two years later following the conference, the state of Illinois kept focused on poor single mothers creating the “Mother’s Pension”. The pension provided financial assistance for poor single mother’s to stay home and care for children instead of having to work, to avoid juvenile delinquency. Finally in 1935, even though president FDR focused more on creating jobs, he finally established a more organized, national welfare system for the first time in America. At the time the plans that were being placed, many people were still not saving for retirement. Only a few people were actually doing something to have as a backup at the time of retirement or were backed by government employers. Only about 30 states actually had a retirement plan, and still depended on local representatives. FDR finally decided to expand the welfare program, and with this he thought it would eliminate “make up jobs”, that would cost the government a lot of money. Finally on August 18, 1935, he created a national social security program for people 65 that would be provided by a small payroll tax and the employers. To this day, welfare is a very controversial subject since most people as well as representatives believe that it promotes “laziness”. This is an argument that people have been using since the conception of welfare systems, such as food-stamps and unemployment. At the beginning of the welfare phases, the national help that was provided was at times deliberately harsh so people would get motivated to work. Now a days, the government tries its hardest to make it easier for people to get help, but with its limits.

Office of Attorney General

One of the oldest forms of welfare is the OAG, Office of Attorney General. The OAG pertains to child support, which is the help provided to children abandoned by either father or mother. Child support laws existed since the beginning of the United States goes back into the thirteen colonies. At first, the only authority that was in charge of child support was the judiciary branch, no agencies existed that would take this kind of cases. Unfortunately, as we have come along, single mothers with abandoned children have increased. Since there has been an increment, the Social Security Act of 1935, created first the AFDC, now known as TANF, which government provided minimum assistance to the needy child by giving health benefits and money. Since many obligated parents were not complying in paying, the Social Security Act of 1965 and 1967 provided information to government of addresses, employers, and even tax information to track the obligator. In the state of Texas, the guidelines that pertains as to how much you will pay for child support are as follows: one child is 20% of net resources, two children is 25% percent, three children is 30%, but the limit is 40% no matter how many children you have. The child support calculation does consider whether you earn commissions, overtime, tips, bonuses, ect. When you are paying child support, should you die, it does not mean that you stop paying. What the agency does is that it recalculates the monthly payment amount and health insurance amount needed to be covered up until the 18th birthday of the child; then they would deduct all of that from your assets if satisfied, the case is closed. The only way to end child support is if child reaches 18 years of age and graduates from High School, marries, dies, or court closes case. The most recent statistics as of 2002 show: 84% if child support providers are men, 50% of the people who make child support payments are younger than the age of forty.

Child Care Services

One of the most funded welfare policies is Child Care Services (CCS) also known as CCMS. It was organized to help create assistance for low income families needing daycare. In the state of Texas 72% of the funding is given directly to child care. As of June 9, 2009, 151,202,053 dollars were given in direct child assistance under the ARRA, America Recovery Reinvestment Act; the Upper Rio Grande region was only granted 3 million dollars. Daycare’s in itself is expensive service ranging from prices of $8.42 thru $ 26.52 a day, per child. Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), gives local boards the authority to make decisions on policies; to obtain CCS provides assistance depending on the income of the family size, and is required in the state of Texas that you must be participating in looking for work, training in a vocational program, attending high school or GED program, attending college depending on the targeted occupational list, and or working a minimum of 25 hrs a week. The targeted occupational list consists of careers that are in a high demand. For single household parent’s they are required to open up a child support case with the OAG office. The children needing assistance must obtain legal citizenship in the United State, and can’t be over the age of 13 yrs old. The only exception that the state can make to keep providing assistance for a child over the age of 13 yrs is if the child has a medical condition that the Dr. has diagnosed and meets the definition of a child with disabilities under the state of Texas. All parents are required to report all changes within 10 calendar days. Failure to do so may be considered fraud. At which point you would be responsible to re-pay the services that were granted to you. If at any time the funding is no longer available the state is required to advise the parent 30 days in advance to make other day care arrangements. To receive child care services applicants must go through an application process that consist of being placed on the waiting list and or coming in with a referral. At the time that the parents qualifies for CCS parents can be eligible up to 6 months of service depending on their circumstances, at which point parents pay depending on the family size 9 or 10 percent of their monthly gross income, CCS pays the remaining balance.