Which president instituted welfare

The basic shape of the state-federal public welfare system formed by the Social Security Act of remained largely intact until when Congress combined the cash assistance programs serving needy adults Aid for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled into the Supplementary Income SSI program, making it a federally administered program under the U.

Social Security Administration. In , Title XX of the Act was enacted, consolidating most of the social services provisions of the various cash assistance titles into a single program of social services for needy citizens. Under the terms of the Social Security Act of , each state had to first choose whether or not to participate in one of the new public welfare programs. States retained major control over setting the requirements governing client eligibility and the level of cash benefits paid to recipients.

Initially, federal financial participation in the cost of benefits paid to recipients was determined according to a formula which fixed federal reimbursement to the level of cash benefits established by a state. In addition, the federal government agreed to pay fifty percent of the administrative costs incurred by a state. It was also a condition of eligibility that the individual fit one of the established categories, that is: to be aged, blind or a child living in a household without a father.

For many years, this limitation of the federal-state public assistance programs contributed to the phenomenon of fathers voluntarily leaving a family so their children could receive public assistance.

Further expansion of medical assistance for the aged occurred in with the enactment of Medicaid Title XIX for eligible public welfare recipients. The basic shape of the state-federal public welfare system formed by the Social Security Act remained largely intact until when the Congress federalized the cash assistance programs serving adults Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled into the Supplemental Security Income SSI program.

In , Title XX of the Act was enacted, consolidating most of the social service provisions of the various cash assistance titles into a single program of social services for needy citizens, with a cap on the amount of money the states could claim as federal financial participation for the provision of social services.

For more information, visit the U. Origins of the state and federal public welfare programs Social Welfare History Project. Although many nonprofit groups, religious organizations, and state and local governments had long run charitable efforts to help alleviate poverty, the unprecedented levels of unemployment pushed many groups beyond what they could provide.

Whether it was the young showing up to school hungry, or not at all, workers struggling to make ends meet, or the elderly living without pensions, Americans were struggling to live without a safety net. That, Roosevelt argued, was something the federal government could change. It was a seismic effort from the federal government that, from its inception, ignited debate. Funded by federal tax dollars, welfare use by families ballooned far beyond the Depression era.

In , , families received support. By , that number soared to 1,, Aid, however, was not always distributed fairly. Families of color were largely left out of, or actively block from, government policy. The act was the culmination of a year debate over the effectiveness of government welfare programs and the proper role of government assistance.

The act's goals of moving people off the welfare rolls, limiting the amount of time on public assistance, and mandating that welfare recipients' work were based on the idea of personal responsibility. For conservatives, the law delivered a blow to the modern liberal welfare state. For liberals, the act raised as many questions as it answered. It was unclear how states would provide training to welfare recipients that would allow them to find employment paying a living wage.

More ominously, what would happen to children when families lost their welfare benefits permanently? The history of welfare reform reveals that the question of personal responsibility versus assistance to those in need has been a constant in the debate over welfare.

Dissatisfaction with welfare began during the s. Critics began to assert that the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children AFDC program had made welfare a way of life, rather than simply short-term assistance, for many in the program.

With this perception, a backlash set in. In the s and early s, welfare reform was limited to various states' attempts to impose residency requirements on welfare applicants and remove illegitimate children from the welfare rolls.

Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, created the modern welfare state by building on a tradition of welfare programs in Prussia and Saxony that began as early as in the s, and by winning the support of business.

Bismarck introduced old age pensions, accident insurance and medical care that formed the basis of the modern European welfare state. His paternalistic programs won the support of German industry because its goals were to win the support of the working class for the German Empire and reduce the outflow of immigrants to the United States, where wages were higher but welfare did not exist. Otto von Bismarck : Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, created the modern welfare state by building on a tradition of welfare programs in Prussia and Saxony that began as early as in the s, and by winning the support of business.

The United Kingdom, as a modern welfare state, started to emerge with the Liberal welfare reforms of — under Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. These included the passing of the Old-Age Pensions Act in , the introduction of free school meals in , the Labour Exchanges Act, the Development Act , which heralded greater Government intervention in economic development, and the enacting of the National Insurance Act setting up a national insurance contribution for unemployment and health benefits from work.

Reforms like those instituted by Bismarck in Germany were strongly opposed by conservative thinkers such as the very influential English philosopher and evolutionary theorist Herbert Spencer, who argued that coddling the poor and unfit would simply allow them to reproduce and delay social progress. The welfare system in the United States began in the s, during the Great Depression. After the Great Society legislation of the s, for the first time a person who was not elderly or disabled could receive need-based aid from the federal government.

Aid could include general welfare payments, health care through Medicaid, food stamps, special payments for pregnant women and young mothers, and federal and state housing benefits.

In , a woman receiving welfare assistance headed 4. In the s, California was the U. The federal government pays virtually all food stamp costs.

In , Modern welfare programs differed from previous schemes of poverty relief due to their relatively universal coverage. The development of social insurance in Germany under Bismarck was particularly influential. Some schemes were based largely in the development of autonomous, mutualist provision of benefits.

Others were founded on state provision. The term was not, however, applied to all states offering social protection.