Social Welfare Dependence of Single Mothers Research Paper

Social Welfare Dependence of Single Mothers - Research Paper Example The support is provided with the proviso that it may well be reduced and/or withdrawn any time when the condition of the recipient improves. Subsequent to the relief support provided to people in distress, 'make work', a New Deal concept created during the 1930s or later on redefined as 'workfare' were initiated so that the temporarily affected would feel that they earned their relief support rather than receiving it as a hand out (Prabhakar 1). Workfare is also a concept used in relation to welfare reform. It is a mechanism of imposing work requirements on recipients of public assistance. Despite several problems workfare encountered in the past, a number of states use it now as a means of shifting welfare dependent persons into the formal wage work with the proviso that sometime in the future those who, it is claimed, did not have work experiences, would be acquainted with the world of work, and would somehow hook themselves to jobs and eventually become self-sufficient. Single mot her parents, the recipients of public and other institutional assistance, are people, who for various reasons, including the death of or abandonment, separation or unmarried status, become household heads and take care of their children and other members of the family in place of the traditional breadwinner - the husband. The number of poor people in single mother household heads rose from some two million in the 1950s and 1960s to 11.4 million in 2010 (Seccombe 23; Open City Foundations, 1). Although single mothers were provided with welfare checks and other basic need supplies from the state on a relief basis, many were not able to achieve self-sufficiency. Alternative approaches that would capacitate single mothers need to be explored. Policy Issues and Poverty Urban poverty as it relates to single mothers has been a serious problem that had defied meaningful solution in the U.S.