About Social Work

The important factor that characterizes a program as a government-run social welfare initiative is its prior earnings. Many residents frequently pay into their social security while they are still in their working years, and they are later compensated once they retire. Workers' compensation, disability insurance, and old age are the three most significant social welfares that are obtained through earlier earnings. The government provides a monthly stipend to persons who have saved money through social assistance programs in an effort to lessen their dependency on the government for basic necessities. The second element is equity. The social welfare that is instituted and run by the government has the primary intent of ensuring that there is an equitable distribution of wealth (DiNitto & Johnson, 2016). The wealth is often based on the contribution that the recipients made through their nation-building efforts and the proportion of the revenue that has been collected by the government. The third element is the provision of necessary facilities to the citizens. The necessary amenities that the government offers through the social welfare programs include transport, education, and quality healthcare programs for the citizens.

The most notable forms of social welfare programs that are provided by the government include child welfare, health insurance, disability, public assistance and social assistance. Such often have the intent of enabling the public to enjoy quality healthcare and have equal access to essential services and needs such as education, healthcare, and home. The programs are often designed with the intention of ensuring that the public is the principal beneficiaries of such contribution by the government and state at large. All social welfare programs of the government are guided by a policy. The primary intent of the policy is to ensure that the government sets aide revue and budget that can be utilized in the implementation of the programs that have been instituted by the government. Furthermore, such programs are often constituted in the form of political choices that are made by the state of the day to ensure that the revenue earned by the government efficiently reach the grassroots levels.

Question two

The five steps in the rational policy evaluation model include the identification of an opportunity or a problem, the generation of solutions to the identified problem, evaluation of alternatives and selection of the amicable resolution. Others include implementation of a solution and monitoring and receiving feedback from the project stakeholders. The policy evaluation model is general abstract in nature and only leads to the process and means of making a policy rather than the result that the policy intends to achieve. The problem of coming up with a policy result when the desired solution differs from the actual situation, thus, the justification for an intervention (DiNitto & Johnson, 2016). However, an opportunity according to the model is realized when there is room for improvement that would later lead to the generation of results more than the expectation of goals of the proposed project. Third, having decision rules is crucial in affirming the importance of decision alternatives that address the problems or the opportunity that has been presented. Coming up with a solution requires the policymaker first to evaluate if the decision is both feasible and ethical. The answers that are chosen should first identify the cause of the problem and further cure the question that has been determined in the policy issue. The best solution should be realized through an optimization process whereby the best solutions address the different approach to solving the issue identified in the problem. The significant benefit of the model is the transparency that it realized when evaluating a problem and giving room for enhancement of the decisions that have been undertaken. However, the model is bureaucratic in nature. Additionally, the model is based on the expertise of those with vast knowledge I the field rather than the experiential understanding of the stakeholders likely to be affected by the policy that is being sought. Therefore, the policy needs to be evaluated based on the benefit that it may bring about to the target population and engage the target population in the realization of potential benefits.

Question three

The first difficulty that confronts researchers who are trying to measure poverty in the United States is the determination of income. Determining the income of any given populace requires a firsthand account and verifiable information of the total household income viz a viz the total expenditure for the basic services that are needed. The measure of income is often biased based on what is included and what is excluded in the household income. For example, the in-kind benefits that are generated by the government to the poor households are falsely excluded from the household include. For example, income tax credit, food stamps, school lunch and the Medicaid are subsidized programs by the government that tends to address the issue of poverty but are excluded by many researchers when determining or calculating poverty rates amongst the American population.

The second difficulty is on how researchers can categorize the EITC refund as income, or it should be excluded from the measure of the household income of the given household that is under analysis. The EITC programs are often not well documented and are a result of the poor accounting decisions that are made by the government. As a result, it is relatively difficult to determine the child poverty rate during economic analysis.

Third, the measure of poverty as a form of economic deprivation is a misleading concept to many policymakers when it comes to measuring poverty. Poverty should not just be limited to the financial resources that are available to the family but that the measure of consumption. The current standard of poverty only addresses the extent to which the society may escape starvation rather than living decent and quality life. Therefore, the present measure of poverty in the United States would take up the angle and approach of resource measure to ascertain the extent to which it may deviate from the median household income (DiNitto & Johnson, 2016). Such would enable the policymakers and the government agencies to determine the efficacy of their programs in addressing poverty issues.

Question seven

The ethical implication of policies that require mothers to return to work or risk losing their welfare benefits is lack of concentration on proper parenting. The current policies compel mothers to concentrate on their work rather than nurturing their families. The effects of such policies may be detrimental to the wellbeing of their families. Across many states within the USA, many mothers are expected to resume work when their children are less than six months old, thus undermining their responsibility of taking care of their children. The other unethical result that may result from such policy decision is the underperformance of staff at the workplace. Female staff requires quality work-life balance that would enable them to attend to their family needs and still deliver on their mandate within the workplace (DiNitto & Johnson, 2016). However, limiting the role that the female has in taking care of their children strains the social fabric of the American families. Many children grow knowing their caregivers as their mothers and not their biological mothers since their mothers fear to lose their welfare benefits if they do not go back to back within the stipulated timelines. Many mothers are forced to take their children to after-school care and quality daycare as they balance their roles as mothers and employees at the same time. Consequently, the cognitive development of the children is often imbalanced owing to the insufficient attention that the mothers have to offer to their children. The other ethical implication is on the quality of life that the children tend to grow under. The increased household income that results from the increased income levels improved the household income and such leads to the children enjoying a high-quality life. However, there is need to reform such policies to grant the women opportunity to take care of their children for a more extended period without undermining their job. New mothers need to be allowed to take work home and access the information systems of their companies while at home to enable them to balance their roles as a mother and as an employee to reduce the negative ethical implications that may result.



Reference

DiNitto, D. M., & Johnson, D. (2016). Social welfare: Politics and public policy. Boston.