welfare reform
Changing assistance programs
Welfare reform refers to changes in government assistance programs, typically aimed at reducing dependency and encouraging employment.
The term gained prominence in 1990s American politics with legislation requiring work in exchange for benefits and limiting how long recipients could collect aid.
Critics use welfare reform to describe cuts disguised as policy improvement; supporters invoke it to signal fiscal responsibility and self-sufficiency: The governor campaigned on welfare reform.
- public assistanceGovernment help for poor
- block grantsFlexible federal-to-state funding
- workfareBenefits requiring labor
- social safety netsPublic programs preventing destitution
- legislationOfficial enactment of statutes
cash assistance · poverty alleviation · unemployment rates · entitlement programs · social justice · human dignity · TANF · Bill Clinton · Medicaid · eligibility criteria · minimum wage laws · equity · workforce participation · community development · case management · moral responsibility · recipients · personal responsibility
- reformreformer, reformist, democratic reforms, structural change, overhaul
- ScandinaviaNorway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland
- economic policymonetary policy, tax policy, fiscal discipline, fiscal stimulus, fiscal restraint
- UK Policytax policy, economic policy, education policy, health policy, housing policy
- 1990sMonica Lewinsky, impeachment, NAFTA, Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing
- child welfarechild protection, foster care, child services, foster home, protective services
welfare reformuniversal basic income
Guaranteed payments to all
guaranteed income · War on Poverty · New Deal programs · New Deal · Medicare for All
welfare reformsocial democracy
Reformed capitalism with welfare state
welfare state · collective responsibility · democratic socialism · redistributionism · social insurance