Essay about Hcr 230 Week 3 Assignment the Welfare Reform Act

The Welfare Reform Act HCR/230—Claims Prep II Jeana Timmcke University of Phoenix—Axia College The Welfare Reform Act Welfare has been a controversial issue since the 1960s, and continues to be a controversial issue. During the late 1980s, citizens were calling for reform of the Welfare System. Due to citizen concern the Personal Responsibility, Welfare and Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) came into effect. On August 22, 1996, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation of 1996. The Welfare Reform Act drastically changed the nation’s welfare system. The Welfare Reform Act was†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"This legislation had four major goals: to assist a major target group - needy families - to care for children, to promote job preparation and work (that is to reduce dependency), to reduce out of wedlock childbearing, and promote mother-father families. (Havemen amp; Scholz, 2001.) The Welfare Reform Act was meant to get people off of Welfare and put them to work. There became stipulations for people who receive benefits; they must work a mandatory of 20 hours after two years of assistance. Welfare Reform provided more funding for child care in the effort to get mothers back to work. Families, who have exceeded the five year limit or less depending on state laws, will no longer receive cash assistance. States are given â€Å"block grants† in order to provide welfare benefits to the recipients. Welfare Reform also causes states to maintain their spending on Welfare. States can receive bonuses from the Federal Government for the performance of moving Welfare recipients to work and getting them off the system. (PRWORA, n.d.) The main goal of Welfare Reform is to reduce dependency. Since Welfare Reform, TANF caseloads have dropped by nearly 50 percent. Some tend to argue that this decline was in part due to a stronger economy, but in the past 50 years no previous economic growth ever results in the decline of the case load. The decrease in caseload is not