Freeloaders need not apply

Welfare is designed to assist people in times of need, but it is taken advantage of by people all across the country. In New York City, the Human Resources Administration in the Department of Social Services is responsible for administering cash assistance. People who apply for cash assistance are notified if they have been denied or approved within 30 days. If approved, they receive assistance with housing and food costs. Applicants are entitled to benefits for up to five years, according to federal law. Different states can opt to extend their benefits time frame. In many cases for those who are approved, applicants are mandated to take part in a workforce development program.

The workforce development program is usually conducted by a local non-profit agency, which takes city contracts through an intermediary organization. By the time applicants make their way to the workforce development program, it is easy to tell which applicants are taking advantage of a good program during a time of need, and which ones are simply taking advantage.

I am not claiming that welfare is a terrible program that is abused by every applicant across the country. I am saying that welfare is a broken system. As part of the workforce development program, applicants are required to visit prospective employers. Usually, they are given a referral to a specific job site and must go to the site. If they do not comply and fail to present a legitimate excuse, they are subject to a Failure to Comply and are kicked out of the program. This is exactly where the system breaks down.

Despite having been kicked out of a mandated program, applicants may still reapply for cash assistance and gain the same benefits that they were receiving before. The same person will, once again, be referred back to a workforce development program. This is completely absurd! What is to stop applicants from not looking for a job while still enjoying access to the same benefits? This type of chicanery should not be tolerated.

Operations Management teaches us to look at a system as a phone line, in which each telephone pole represents a stage in the process and each phone line between telephone poles is an advancement of the process. If any phone line fails to conduct the message, the message is not transmitted to the other telephone. In the welfare scenario, the HRA needs to fix the broken telephone line in order to transmit the correct message. Welfare is not a system that should be easily taken advantage of. Welfare is a system designed to help the unfortunate dig themselves out of their hardest times. It should also be a system that induces compliance. After all, the government is giving away free money right out of taxpayers' pockets.

An applicant should not be able to reapply after being kicked out of a mandated workforce development program. The workforce development program is the insurance the government uses to make sure that the applicants are looking for work. What better way to tell that an applicant is not looking for work than with proof that they have failed to comply with the program's standards? Once an applicant receives a Failure to Comply, then that person should be denied all future cash assistance programs, even if they have not used the benefits for the full five years.

I am not willing to pay taxes that are going directly into the hands of people who intend to take unfair advantage of them and you shouldn't be either.