How the welfare system needs to be fixed?

[Daniel]

First of all, I vote Democrat and I do support these social programs to some extent, but I can't stand people who do nothing and expect government handouts. It's worse when some families are on welfare for generations, and some of them have no incentive to work or at least get an education. Something else that bothers me is how some don't manage their money and blow it off on unnecessary things; they spend all the money and wait for the next handout, for fear the government will give them less money if they save it, and sometimes have more kids just to get more welfare. But these are just the few that abuse the system, I still hope that many people who are on welfare truly need it.

Solutions? I'll admit that I did vote for Obama, yet I did agree with Romney on a few things, I just agreed with Obama on more issues. One thing I did like was drug testing for welfare, that everybody on welfare should be drug tested at least twice a year, or be actively looking for employment; if they are found to be using drugs, have the welfare cut off. I used to think people got a wad of cash for welfare, apparently they get a type of debit card now? If they get these cards, shouldn't there be some central monitoring system that tracks all purchases made by the card? What about limiting the card to only necessities, such as food at the market and banning their use for unnecessary luxuries such as designer clothes/items, iPhones, expensive cars, movie tickets, clubs, casinos, upscale restaurants, cigarettes, liquor, etc. There should also be no ATM option, so people can't cheat the system:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/wel...es-casinos
Even though I don't agree with the Republicans on many things, I agree with this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01...46867.html
Yeah, Romney did flip flop on his positions and all, that's part of what led me to distrust him and vote Obama instead, I know the man has lied and broken many promises but I'm still hoping he is able to bring about the change he promised over these next 4 years in office.

$300 doesn't seem like much (some get more, some get less), but when you think about the sheer number of people on some kind of government assistance, Romney's 47% is overblown but I think close to 50 million Americans are on food stamps and about the same amount of people on medicaid, a large portion of welfare recipients, really more like a third of the US population and costs hundreds of billions of dollars.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48898378/Record_4...ood_Stamps
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/12/news/eco.../index.htm
That's the problem, too many people are comfortable with their situation and vote out any politician that tries to tighten regulations on welfare.

[Rob Dutoit]

The problem is that no government is brave enough to fix the system, because they will vote themselves straight out of office. I feel that you should get six months welfare support when you lose your job and then you are on your own. It sounds harsh, but it will end the abuse of the system, the corruption and fraudulent claims etc.

The welfare system was intended to help people through a bad time, but its now become a way of life for some areas of society. It cannot be fixed in the sense that you are talking, because there will always be a loophole that gets abused etc. Give them 6 months welfare if they lose their job and thats it. Some people will not help themselves if everyone does it for them, hence I do not feel that welfare benefits are of much help. As you have noticed, its just created a class of people who live off the system.

I would also eradicate benefits that top up your wages etc, because essentially all that you are doing is subsiding big corporations by allowing them to pay a lower wage than the living wage. This is one of the reasons, why house prices and rents are so high in England because of the housing benefit and social services financial aid. Its actually pricing out the people who actually work for a living, but are not poor enough to qualify for state aid - in essence, you are better off on the dole than actually working.

This is an unintended consequence of the state trying to help people and it needs to be stopped. But no government will do it because they know they will voted out of office quicker than you can bat your eyelids as it sounds a horrible thing to do. But I actually believe that you have to be cruel to be kind sometimes. People on benefit are getting too much help with the result that they don't help themselves. The only way that the welfare system will be fixed is when the state runs out of money, because more people are cashing in than paying in, which will happen in various EU states over the next decade.

[TheCheese]

I do agree that the welfare system needs to be more regulated, but how on earth did you know if you agreed with Romney or not? He changed opinions more than he changed his clothes (had to say it, sorry). I agree with you on pretty much all of that, but you do realize that many people's welfare are only like $300, right? It's not much at all. I doubt a great deal of them are living a high life to start with. Other than that, I actually agree with you on all of that. To make sure a system doesn't get cheated, it has to be regulated carefully; welfare is no exception.

[Urban, D K]

In for a penny, in for a pound.

[Warren T]

Our welfare system should only provide the basic needs of life food, clothing & shelter and should do it in kind and not with money and should be done at the lowest possible cost

You want a welfare system that people will everything possible to stay off of it and when they are on it when do everything possible to get off of it as quickly as possible