workfare

Workfare is an alternative model to conventional social welfare systems. The term was first introduced by civil rights leader James Charles Evers in 1968; however, it was popularized by Richard Nixon in a televised speech August 1969. (Peck, 1998, p.137) Traditional welfare benefits are available with little required of the recipient, save their continued search for employment, if that. Under workfare, recipients have to meet certain participation requirements to continue to receive their welfare benefits. These requirements are often a combination of activities that are intended to improve the recipient's job prospects (such as training, rehabilitation and work experience) and those designated as contributing to society (such as unpaid or low-paid work). These programs, now common in the United States, Australia (as "mutual obligation"), and Canada, have generated considerable debate and controversy.

There are two main types of workfare: those that encourage direct employment to get individuals off the welfare roll directly into the workforce, and those that are intended to increase human capital by providing training and education to those currently in the welfare system. (Peck, 1998)

In the Third World, similar schemes are designed to alleviate rural poverty among day-labourers by providing state-subsidised temporary work during those periods of the year when little agricultural work is available. For example, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in India offers 100 days paid employment per year for those eligible, rather than unemployment benefits on the Western model.

Goals of workfare

The purported main goal of workfare is to generate a "net contribution" to society from welfare recipients. Most commonly, this means getting unemployed people into paid work, reducing or eliminating welfare payments to them and creating an income that generates taxes. Furthermore, it is argued that once a person has recent employment experience, even at entry level, they are better able to obtain gainful, long term employment. Welfare to work programs aim to break the cycle of poverty where welfare dependence can become a way of life.^[1][2] Workfare participants retain certain employee rights throughout the process. ^[3]

Some workfare systems also aim to derive contribution from welfare recipients by more direct means. These systems obligate unemployed people to undertake work that is beneficial to their community. The rationale behind these programs is twofold; Firstly, taxpayers may feel that they get "more value for their welfare dollar" when they observe welfare recipients working for benefits, making such programs more politically popular. Secondly, putting unemployed people into a workplace-like environment attempts to address the argument that one of the biggest barriers to employment for the long-term unemployed is their lack of recent workforce experience.

Controversy

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Critics sometimes point out that the reason for the massive decrease of people on the welfare rolls in the United States in the 1990s wasn't due to a rise in actual gainful employment in this population, but rather, due almost exclusively to their offloading into workfare, giving them a different classification than classic welfare recipient.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
• New Deal (USA)
• New Deal (UK)
• Welfare-to-work in the US.
• Work for the Dole, an Australian government program.
• AFDC
• TANF
• Welfare trap

Notes

• Peck, Jamie. "Workfare: a geopolitical etymology." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Vol. 16, 1998, p. 133-161)

External links

• "Workfare Tendencies in Scandinavian Welfare Policies" http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/ses/info/publ/workfare.htm