Welfare stereotypes

Stereotypes refer to prejudicial generalizations about a particular group of people, and welfare stereotypes usually refer to mistaken beliefs about the most common types of people receiving welfare. For example, many people have perpetuated a myth that the typical poor person is Black or a person of color and that “welfare queens,” a derogatory term used to describe young, single Black women who have more babies to increase the size of their welfare checks, are largely responsible for increases in welfare costs. Furthermore, the welfare recipient often is stereotyped as someone who will not accept a minimum-wage job or as an illegal immigrant whose welfare costs contribute to excessive taxation.

In reality, census data shows that 13.7 percent of children under eighteen were living in poverty in 2023. Also, more than 6.4 million individuals worked full-time but had wages below the poverty line in 2022. More than one-fifth of those living in poverty had a disability. Moreover, according to data published by the Center for Economic Policy Research in 2023, while 21 percent of welfare recipients were Black, 27 percent were Hispanic people, and 29 percent of recipients were White.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in 2020, 3.3 million single mothers did not work for pay, yet only 1.1 million families received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) at some point during that year. At times, welfare and subsidy programs do not reach the proper people, or it is challenging to get the proper assistance. Due to the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), recipients may not receive more than five years of aid, yet most do not accrue that maximum number.

Overview

Welfare stereotypes have been used to reinforce racist beliefs and assumptions that the poor are to blame for their own condition and, therefore, are not deserving of any type of publicly funded assistance. Some who deny that the economy and discrimination create unequal opportunities have used welfare stereotypes to find scapegoats for societal problems. Yet studies such as those reported by M. J. Bane in Fighting Poverty: What Works and What Doesn’t (1986) and E. A. Segal in “Welfare Reform and the Myth of the Marketplace” (1997) have shown that major factors explaining poverty include insufficient jobs, low wages, inadequate education, and lack of affordable daycare and other support services. Moreover, because of a history of discrimination, disproportionate shares of people of color are disadvantaged by low levels of educational attainment, poor health, and discrimination in hiring, promotion, and housing. This helps explain why about around 17 percent of African Americans and Hispanics live below the poverty line and more than 25 percent Native Americans live below the poverty line.

Welfare stereotypes also refer to other types of mistaken generalizations. One frequently held opinion is that government funding for the poor makes up a large portion of the national budget. Therefore, when the nation experiences economic problems, some people criticize welfare expenditures. Yet in 1996, a year marked by passage of PRWORA, a sweeping welfare reform, less than 15 percent of the federal budget went to all low-income social assistance programs, including education and training. According to the Population Reference Bureau in its 1996 report, 43 percent of the federal budget went to “other types of social assistance, such as Social Security and Medicare, which mainly go to middle-class Americans, not the poor.” By 2023, around 18 percent of the budget went to welfare and low-income programs, while around 50 percent went to Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, and other assistance programs. Some argue that tax breaks for the wealthy constitute a much more expensive form of government spending that people overlook in common welfare stereotypes.

Bibliography

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Danizer, Sheldon H., and Daniel H. Weinberg, eds. Fighting Poverty: What Works and What Doesn’t. Harvard UP, 1986.

Farrell, Mary, et al. “Welfare Time Limits: An Update on State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families.” Administration for Children and Families, April 2008, www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/welfare‗time‗limits‗an‗update‗on‗state‗policies‗implementation‗and.pdf. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025.

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