Family Assistance Plan

Family Assistance Plan
The United States in the 1970s-1980s eras was a very interesting time because it was post-Civil Rights and post-Vietnam War era. During this era poverty became a very problematic issue. One of the first people to address the issue of poverty was President Nixon. President Nixon knew the issue of poverty had to be addressed because he himself came from a poverty stricken region. Nixon’s administration proposed the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) in 1969 to give money to the working poor to prevent a major dependency on welfare. The Family Assistance plan however is still beneficial to the American people because the various types of aid given help support low income families.
Many people who are directly affected by the Family Assistance plan are not at fault for ending up in this predicament. Some people just do not have the proper education or the right skills to get adequate jobs that can support their family needs. United States Senator Tom Harkin once said “If you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to support your family, join the middle class, and build a brighter future for your children” (Harkin).Which means that as the cost of living continues to rise, the minimum wage should directly vary with it for those who have full-time jobs. Millions of people who receive a low income have trouble striving to obtain a living in the middle class. Some critics of the American Economic System such as Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein believe that “No matter how long they stayed at the job and no matter how diligently they worked jobs in what some called “The five-dollar-an-hour ghetto” seldom led to better jobs”(Edin 31). This ideally ties to the Family Assistance Plan because how can a person survive by themselves if they work diligently and still are unable to provide for their family’s needs. This also ties into Nixon’s original idea on how he wanted to base the foundation of the FAP.
One of the byproducts of the Family Assistance Plan is the aid known as The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).TANF main goal is to provide financial help for children and their parents or relatives who may be living with them. Recipients of TANF receive monthly cash payments to help pay for transportation, clothing, housing, utilities, furniture, and other basic needs. In order to be eligible to receive the additional monthly income the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) “Looks at a family’s income and compares it with the amount the family pays for basic needs”(Temporary Assistance). Thus TANF is beneficial because it does not create a dependency on the government because there is “a maximum of 60 months of TANF assistance benefits within one’s lifetime,” also you are required to renew every six months (Temporary Assistance). The renewal process is also equally beneficial as the limit because requires them to prove their actual need for the money that is distributed from the government to ensure you are not simply blowing the money on unnecessary things.
Another type of financial assistance is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Facts (SNAP) which can also be referred to as food stamps. Like TANF, SNAP is another aspect of FAP which helps low-income people. Although SNAP is a federal government program, it is run by state or local agencies. Nearly everyone who already has been pre-approved for TANF is automatically eligible for SNAP. SNAP “Helps people with low incomes and resources buy the food they need for good health” (SNAP Food). Recipients of this aid will receive the aid on credit card and must register all their transactions in order to create a budget for the amount of money that they eligible to receive on a monthly basis. Another method in which the government helps reduce dependencies on SNAP is limiting the amount months that individuals may receive to 3 months in 3-year period (SNAP Food).SNAP also has an emergency plan that allows for the “Expedition” of SNAPs for families that are in “emergency situations”(SNAP Food). In order to qualify for Emergency SNAP benefits a family must earn $100 or less on a monthly basis, less than the most recent rent/mortgage and utilities, or a migrant or seasonal worker that makes less than $100 (SNAP Food). For those who do not make enough money monthly the SNAP program is a blessing. Through the years the SNAP program has helped in preventing many families from malnutrition and in some cases even starvation.

Another very beneficial aspect of FAP is the Medicaid program. The Medicaid program was designed in order to offer medical assistance for low income residents. In order to qualify for Medicaid must be “meeting federal income asset standards, by fitting into a specified eligibility” (What Is).In order to qualify for Medicaid an individual must meet the criteria of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for at least one month, be considered disable, and must have a “Gross earned income that is insufficient to replace SSI, Medicaid, and any publicly funded attendant care” (Social). Some States also have select criteria that require applicants to fill an additional application in order to see if they meet the criteria for specialized Medicaid (Social). The economic system within the United States has made it theoretically impossible to go to the hospital and have life changing procedures done Like Open Heart Surgery (OPS) ,Cancer treatments (such as Chemo), or even very expensive surgeries that may pertain to Neuroscience or Optometry. Receiving this treatments leave lower class citizens at a disadvantage due to their economic restrictions and lack of proper insurance to adequately cover the procedure that needs to be done. Thus the Family Assistance Program is designed to help reduce these disadvantages and allow for people to be severely indebted by medical bills. This allows for people to live normal healthy lives without the financial burden that might come at a price, and equal the opportunities that may pertain regardless of whether or not they are low or upper class (What Is).
Many opposers of the Family Assistance Plan claim that individuals may abuse this system, however many who work and receive aid find that it benefits more than the cons the simultaneously compare. Some critics of the FAP find that the “Proudly dependent” are the problems that claim to over abuse the system. For Instance a Louisiana resident, Rosie Watson, “collects nine welfare checks, which give her and her family a total, tax-free income of $46,716” and after an appeal, an “administrative law judge declared her eligible on grounds of “stress” to receive Medicaid (Edin 27). Many would not hesitate to argue that this may be a major problem that is developing with the FAP. However, this problem could easily be resolved if the government was able to pass and regulate more restrictions on which people must be able to receive various forms of Aid’s like raise the criteria in standards, decrease eligibility rates to only people that may qualify, or perhaps even have individuals being more involved, like social workers, in order to prove whether not people are actually deserving of this or just faking this in order to obtain free nontaxable income on a regular basis .Being more selective in the individuals who are able to receive Medicaid will avoid further abuse of the system.
While some others who are in agreement of the Family Assistance Plan have argued that “over the past three decades, public job training programs have touched tens of millions of the nation’s least well-off citizens” (Epstein 142).Congress since then has since passed the Concentrated Employment and Training Act (CETA) which was specifically designed to help train the youth and the “economically disadvantage” (Epstein 143). Ideally due to the joint effort of congress and the FAP there has been a slow reduction of restrictions that is allowing for citizens of the lower economic status to survive and support their families.
After analyzing all aspects of the of the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) one would realize all the various positive aspects of the aid that President Nixon began nearly thirty years ago. Overall, the Family Assistance Plan has helped many of the hard working middle and low class citizens through all the various forms of aid such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program(SNAP) aka food stamps, and Medicaid. Although there are always those who try to find a way around the system, FAP has most definitely provided the United States with a very efficient way to help those in need and help the lower class survive. Thus providing them with a chance to progress past poverty and eventually obtaining more out of life then they have ever thought was attainable.