Single Mothers On Welfare: Christian Counseling For Women

Liberty University

Mothers on Welfare:

Christian Counseling for Women

In today’s society, there seem to be many people dependent on the welfare system. In many instances, these families are made up of young unwed Teen Mothers lots of them working minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet. This being their only means of survival at times and the only way they can afford to feed their Children. These are people we pass by every day, not even realizing or even knowing that they might not be able to feed themselves or their Children. Believe it or not In the United States there is millions who are forced to get help providing for themselves and their families. The economy being what it is now, people losing their jobs, forecloses
on the rise its truly not getting better it appears to be getting worse. Unfortunately Society has many different views on our country’s welfare system, some feeling we should get rid of it, saying this will save us money. However for some, mostly Single Mother’s managing their income is difficult due to inflation and the rising cost of living standards. I feel they should not have to lack in order to survive. Although there are many that feel differently, I myself support the welfare system for people who do not, or for whatever reason cannot work a decent Job necessary to survive. However before addressing the issues of Mothers on Welfare, I must first explain exactly what the welfare system is, and what it does. The welfare system is a program that provides assistance to needy individuals and families. The types and amount of welfare available to individuals and families vary for Country, State or Region. In the United States, the Federal Government provides grants to each state through the Welfare system, which provides aide to Single Mothers with dependent Children and/or Individuals who cannot support themselves. Largely funded by taxpayers, the Welfare system allows families to cope with financial stress during rough periods of their lives. In most cases, people who use welfare will receive a monthly payment of Cash and Food Stamps, or what is now referred to as The Link Card. The goals of welfare vary, as it looks to promote the pursuance of work, education or, in some instances, a better standard of living. (Investopedia, 2012). The Welfare system is a formalized version of different types of social support services that societies offer and maintain the public's perceptions about women on welfare in the United States and how many children they have is a hot topic with different groups of people ranging from college students, young professionals and older, established working individuals.
Often the conversation leads to the subject of how many children a woman on welfare should have and most of the time a negative idea of women on welfare. In today’s society, many people have to depend on the welfare system and low wage employment as a source of income to support their family. For many Single Mothers, this is the only means of survival and the only way they can afford to feed their families. There are people we run into every day, not even realizing or even knowing that they might not be as fortunate as us. Believe it or not In the United States there is millions who are forced to seek help providing for themselves. Knowing this fact, some unfortunately in our Society still holds negative views on our country’s welfare system. Some positive but it seems as if a lot more are negative. Jill Duerr Berrick address in her book "Faces of Poverty: Portraits of Women on Welfare" the two myths that women on welfare have many children and that they continue to have children so they can get additional money every month (Berrick, 1995 pg.15). This is an argument that is heard consistantly. However as Ms. Berrick
states only one child is found in the families of forty-two percent of women on welfare. Thirty percent of these mothers have two children; sixteen percent have three children while four or more children are found in the remaining ten percent (Berrick, 1995 pg.15). For every additional year that a woman receives government assistance the "odds of conceiving a child decrease dramatically" (Berrick, 1995 pg.154) For many mothers managing their income is difficult due to inflation and the rising cost of living standards. I feel Families should not have to lack the necessities needed to survive. I myself support the welfare system for people who do not have a decent income. The costs of raising a child come from food, clothes and shelter as well as the cost of daycare, healthcare and entertainment. If a child remains on welfare for the duration of his/her childhood the net result would be the taxpayers paying the $100,000. In 1992, 9.2 million children under the age of eighteen were receiving welfare, accounting for 67.7 percent of the children (Cammisa, Pg. 13). I was reading about the government welfare assistance programs in a book titled “Pitied but not entitled” By (Linda Gordon), when I came across a few statistics about the people on welfare. There are 20 million Americans that suffer from constant hunger. Over 2 million of these people are homeless. One in every 5 children and their single mothers now live a life of poverty. The unemployment level is around 50% and teen-age unemployment level is at 30%. (Gordon, 1994.) I learned a lot while researching about this topic; I never know there were so many people who weren't fortunate enough to even eat. At least in our Country “The land of milk, and honey” poverty in this nation reaches men, women, young and old, black and white. Affecting people in all states, all countries, and of all nationalities. I ask myself why, is the word poverty such a universal term and so misunderstood, and how can something that affects so many, be supported by so few In the United States? Nearly 40 million people are living in poverty. At the Same time, we have many privileged people in America who have the misconception that poverty is a disease that can only be cured by the one that is affected by it. Most poor people in this country are not poor by choice. Most have been deprived of many of the opportunities that the non-poor have received. I don’t believe Poverty will ever be completely removed the word of God States in (Deuteronomy 15:11). “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land”. ( New International version, 1984) Our best hope for a solution is to find ways that we can reduce poverty. I feel the welfare system is something that is greatly needed, but it will not solve all the problems of the poor. But it can help cover the cost of food, housing, and utilities for many to survive. There are two sides to the idea of the welfare system. Some people like the thought of helping those who really need the help. However there are some groups of people, which are trying to get the welfare system thrown out of our government completely. Simply because they think people on welfare are lazy and trying to get over on the system, this may be true for some, but not all. Many Women do not depend solely on welfare to feed their families, besides the monthly check usually is not enough to support all of their basic needs. They come up with other sources of income in addition to welfare to support their family. These Mothers often have other needs that welfare is not designed to take care of. Surprisingly lots of Women on Welfare work side jobs that go unreported due to more needs than the welfare system provide for. When The State make guidelines on the amount of monies a Woman receive, it does not consider, Cloths, Shoes cooking utensils, housecleaning supplies. They just started including babysitting and Day Care expenses; and currently trying to oust that in some States. Realistically Women on welfare cannot possibly pay the rent; Buy food, pay utilities and other basic necessities (let alone any luxuries) on the little income they get on the first, in the middle, or at the end of the month from welfare. This is why they feel they have to find additional resources, just to make ends meet. Many people speculate about the whys and why not of it. Fact is it is illegal to work off the books for an income coming from these side jobs. But what they fail to realize is our society offers so little to single mother’s that they cannot resist the option to seek more money. The Welfare income supplements only take care of a portion of what A Mother responsibilities is for her family and will never take care of all of the necessities needed for the family. Do not get me wrong I’m against the abuse of the welfare system by the greedy. I feel a change is badly in need for welfare in order to prevent abuse. People who receive the money that really don’t need it should feel really bad about themselves; but of course they don’t .What can we really do to help fix this problem? I feel that lawmakers can come up with other ways the welfare system can help the poor seek employment, in order to reduce the amount of welfare they receive and reduce the fraud. I would suggest one of the biggest ways is by informing people when they apply for assistance of all their options. For example, when a single mother is looking for help to provide for her children and want to attend college, then the welfare agency should provide her with the information she may need on how to apply for a Pell Grant, or ways to contact government funded child care programs for assistance. The solution to welfare seems simple. But it is probably easier to say, than it is to do why? because public assistance agencies need to learn to work together. By working together, it could possibly put single mothers into a better position where assistance is no longer needed. Also helping educate welfare recipients should be at the top of the list, due to most of these mothers never completed High School. Life on welfare could be very hard for some Women; however there is still opportunity to get an education while on welfare she shouldn’t allow it to hinder her.
It is hardly unlikely that a woman in the welfare system today wouldn’t be allowed to go to school and develop the kinds of skills needed to make a better life for Family and herself. That’s why I feel that the government needs to change their direction on welfare reforms from budget cuts and start looking toward installing hope into the poor and the single mother’s of our society. Can you believe that the welfare system will actually pay young teen parents more to move out of their parent’s home than to stay there? Think about it: that just is not cool at all. What really should happen is to encourage these young teen parents to live at home, stay in school, and take responsibility for their own futures and their children's futures. The welfare system ought to do that instead of just the reverse. We have to change the signals we are sending here. This will not be an easy task, but if the government could educate the poor it would be a huge step in making welfare a temporary stepping stone instead of a permanent poverty not believing they can do any better. Let’s keep it real about this huge problem; there is no future in our fronting. Let the world know that In the United States, poverty is defined by dollars and cents, set by the Social Security Administration. Believe this because it is true. They do this
by determining the amount of money needed to survive on food, and then multiply that number by three. The Social Security Administration sets the poverty line. A good example is if they decided that the amount of money needed to keep food on your table for a year was $4,000, then the poverty line will be $12,000. In addition, any family whose income was less than that amount for a year that family would be living in poverty. The poverty line is a tool for determining who receives welfare benefits in this country. In America, African Americans and Latinos have, by far the largest poverty rate. There are so many Factors such as poor wages, and the increase of single-woman parented homes have caused this problem. There are a lot of children without a mother, or a father, which live in poverty today. Poverty is not a personal choice. It is more of a lifestyle that one is born in. When a child is born into this world, they have certain privileges based on their status in this society. A child that is born to a upper class white family with two parents will most likely have a very privileged childhood. That child will receive financial support from his or her parents. In addition, that child will have educational Opportunities, most children living in poverty and raised by single mothers on welfare are not afforded. On the other hand, a child who is brought into the world as the child of a poor, African American, single mother on welfare, has the cards all stacked against him or her at birth. Not having opportunities that were given to upper class children, and the hardships of living in a low -income urban area with a low-income support system that does nothing but handicap the children. Although these children will still be able to attend public schools, keep it real they are more likely to be unsuccessful in the educational situation due to many of the hardships of their lives. There is a much smaller chance that these children born of single mothers on welfare will continue their education beyond high school and into college. Nevertheless, when you do have those that do make it in spite of their circumstances they really excel in life. As you can see, poverty is a continuous cycle that is hard to escape. Contrary to popular belief, Poverty stretches from generation to generation. Because of this fact, it is important that American develop solutions to this problem. By better assisting single mothers on welfare and helping, build them up instead of always tearing them down and helping to create the good, the bad, and the ugly of mothers on welfare.

References
(1984). New International version. In God, The Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan.
Berrick, J. D. (1995). Faces of poverty: portraits of women and children on welfare. . New York: Oxford University Press.
Cammisa, A. M. (1998). From rhetoric to reform?: welfare policy in American politics. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press.
Galbraith, J. K. (1996. ). The Good Society Boston. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Gordon, L. ( 1994. ). Pitied but Not Entitled. In L. Gordon, Single Mothers and the History of Welfare (pp. 50-64). New York: The Free Press.
Investopedia. ( 2012, May 4). Retrieved from Educating the world about finance.: Investopedia – Educating the world about finance. (n.d.). Investopedia – http://www.investopedia.com
Polakow, V. (1993.). Lives on the Edge. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.