Social Welfare Policy Exam 2

What do we mean by the notion of "welfare exceptionalism"?

- A term often used to characterize the U.S. welfare system and the differences between it and other welfare states, especially those of Western Europe - The apparent unwillingness of the United States to emphasize government social welfare programs

*** Name one important advantage AND one disadvantage of converting anti-poverty programs to tax expenditures instead of direct welfare benefits.

- Advantage- tax expenditures are like open-ended entitlements, amount of refund is determined by the volume of claims' - Disadvantage- Undocumented workers are not able to benefit/cannot participate in the tax system.

Who benefits most from refundable tax credits?

- American opportunity tax credit. Available to filers who paid qualified higher education expenses. A portion is refundable. - Earned income tax credit. Paid to eligible moderate- and low-income working taxpayers. - Child tax credit. Available to families with qualifying children under age 17. The "additional child tax credit" may be refundable. - Premium tax credit. Helps cover premiums for health insurance purchased on the federal health insurance marketplace.

Be able to recognize examples of the lack of influence over public policy exhibited by lower socioeconomic groups

- By non-decision making in which the interests of lower socioeconomic groups do not even come up for consideration. - Child Support Enforcement policy assumes that fathers of children on TANF have well-paying hobs the can meet the court order, when often their jobs have very low and unregular wages. This then hurts the children who are not receiving the child support payments - By increasing the number of apathetic voters public policy programs would be made more responsive to their circumstances - Challenges is voter fraud and gerrymandering tactics

How do large nonprofit and corporate salaries compare?

- CEOS of large nonprofits organizations like the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association have salaries of 1 million - Corporate salaries are much higher than these large nonprofits

*** When a policy is enacted, does this ensure implementation? Why or why not? (p.185)

- Enacting is just the process of getting approved for implementation and it might take multiple tries. This causes trials and editing. - Even when the policy is implemented, it may not be enforced - The program designs to benefit specific populations may struggling accessing these benefits if they lack the knowledge to get through the "red tape" - A government shutdown, such as the one Trump had the lasted 35 days in 2018-9 is an ultimate challenge to implementation

Be able to distinguish scenarios reflecting the formulation, legislation, implementation, and evaluation stages of the policy process

- Formulation: Provide guideline in attaining certain objectives for the benefit of the people. Used as a tool to safeguard and ensure better services to members of the society. - Legislation: It determines among others the rights and responsibilities of individuals and authorities to who the legislation applies. - Implementation: The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending. - Evaluation: Gauging the extent to which the objectives have been achieved during the specified time period.

Know examples of targeted tax expenditures

- Government spending through tax code. Ex-credits, deduction, deferrals, tax rates. - Target tax breaks for specific groups of citizens or activies designs to achieve social policy goals

What do we know about the effect of Life Care services for the aged?

- Life care is a service offered by the continuing care community is an alternative offer to traditional nursing homes to reduce costs - This allows more affluent aging people to purchase higher quality longer care that even operated as a nonprofit is out of reach for low-income elderly (p.162)

Who is likely to support government vouchers?

- Mainly Liberals and possibly some liberatarians or very few conservatives

What is the rationale(s) for providing social welfare services through faith-based organizations?

- Marvin Olasky (journalist) - voluntary religious agencies provided efficient and effective services to the needy before the new deal - Evangelical christians see this as a way to add moral standards that are seen as "missing" by traditional social service agencies (p.151) - "compassionate conservatism" paved the way for its expansion and an ideological commitment to smaller government.

Know examples of government contracting out social welfare obligations

- Medicare and Medicaid programs - Title XX Social Services Block grant (p.158)

How might scandals impact the role played by the voluntary sector?

- Misappropriations of funds and managerial improprieties by the United Way caused a loss of contributions and having to lay off staff and close offices - Credibility is a huge virtue of the voluntary sector and therefore scandals that tarnish a nonprofits reputation can take years to repair (p.148)

*** List the six programs provided for under the current Social Security Act.

- OASDI - Old aged survivors and disability insurance - Unemployment Insurance (UI) - for help with unemployed - Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - for aged blind and disabled - TANF - assistance for families with dependent children - Medicare -health insurance for older adults - Medicaid - federal and state health assistance for the poor (p.213)

Know something about what drives the process of oligopolization in the human services sector

- Oligopolization is the control of a market by few providers as organizations seek to reduce competition by buying their competitors - In human services a few number of wealthy and trade associations are able to shape social policy to benefit their interests, especially noted within the healthcare sector

What type of view is likely to be critical of private practice in social work?

- Private practice is a retreat from a service ethic that transcends x self-interest- the public's welfare —- As social welfare is mean to correct inherent market failures to direct resources toward the affluent and not the poor - Public institutions and welfare professionals trying to advancing social justice would be critical of the privatization and high emphasis on clinical psychotherapy perspective

Know the differences between progressive, regressive and flat (proportional) taxation

- Progressive tax: upper-families pay a larger share of their income than do those with lower incomes. - Regressive Tax: requires the poor and middle class-income to pay a larger share of their incomes in taxes than the rich. Taxes on most cmsumer goods, sales, gas, and Social Security payroll are examples. - Flat (Proportional Tax): The whole point of this tax is to simplify the tax code. The same percent of income from everyone, regarless of how much little they earn.

What do we know about the shift from reliance on public social services to renewal of the voluntary sector since Reagan?

- Reagan appealed to charitable impulse of Americans while reducing federal funding to social programs - George H.W. Bush followed this with "thousands points of light" - Clinton declared "big era of government is over" - George W. Bush created the office of faith-based and community service to promote faith-based social services, this office was expanded by Obama (p.144)

Know your basic facts about Social Security

- Social Security is insurance that workers pay into from their paychecks - It takes 62 cents from every 10 dollars, which is matched by employers - Provides a subsistence level of replacement income - Social insurance requires beneficiaries to make contributions to the system before they can claim benefits and is universal - Established by the Social Security Act of 1935

What are barriers that make it hard for advocacy groups to have influence in the policy process?

- Social adovacy groups have less assests than political action campaigns (PAC) and lobbyists. These groups are relying on volunteering lobbyists - Changes in the policy process, which is difficult to track due to the increases of governmental agencies and staffing is hard to track administrative changes (p.184)

How do social entitlement programs fair in the budget process?

- Social security and Medicare/Medicaid are not subject to the budget cycle (p.178) - many welfare programs that receive discretionary funds are often beset with budgets that are not timely or adequately funded

Why has the involvement of social workers in the formulation of social policy been declining?

- Social workers do everything from helping craft federal, state, and local policies to overseeing the administration of social programs to working directly with the recipients of assistance, ensuring that they meet qualifications and that they receive the help they need and are entitled to - The decisions of guiding social policy has been left to other disciplines such as pyschology and urban planners (p.190)

What tends to be true of state and local income taxes in the United States?

- State tax policy varies - 43 states have local income taxes, but seven states do not (Florida,,Nevada, South Dakota, Alaska, Texas, Washington, and Wyonming) - Two states only have tax investment income (Tennessee and New Hampshire) (p.204)

*** Identify and briefly explain three problems that are endemic to, and that limit the effectiveness of, the UI program

- Temporary workers are less likely to receive UI benefits due to not qualifying due to worked hours or wages earned - Longer spells of umemployments. UI focused on temporary unemployment but does not account of job losses due to longer-term structural changes in the economy - Limited coverage, half of the U.S. unemployed are not receiving UI benefits (pg.216)

Which countries have the highest vs. lowest total tax rates?

- US is quite low compared to the those in other developed countries such as Sweden, - - France, and Germany. - Lower: Turkey, Chile, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Korea - High: Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Hungary

Know about the role played by the voluntary sector beyond providing social services

- Voluntary sector's purpose is to advocate for and serve those populations not meeting with eligibbility requirements for government programs or not representing a profit for commercial vendors (p.145) — As funding is often prioritized to highly regarded clientele -Advance social justice of disfranchised people (p.147) and ultimately focused on creating social impact, rather than profit - Organizations of the voluntary sector — hospitals, schools, religious institutions, welfare agencies, fraternal associations, symphonies, museums, etc.

Understand the rationale offered by proponents of the privatization of social welfare services and whether this pertains to Medicare

- privatization addresses the problem of the proper relationship between public and private spheres of the national culture - Corporations have assumed large responsibilities for Medicare, but the rationale for privatization of social services does not relate to Medicare/Medicaid as its still regulated and federally funded

What do we mean by "preferential selection"?

- the market provides strong incentives for providers to differentiate clients according to their effect on organizational performance - the marketplace tends to penalize providers that are imprudent about client selection and reward providers that are more discriminating for more "highly regarded clientale" (p.161)

*** Give two specific examples of how tax policy currently benefits special interest groups.

-Earned Income Tax Credit (ETIC) benefits low-income workers individuals and couples - American Opportunity Tax Credit benefits low-income college students (p.209)

What alternative federal mechanism might increasingly replace direct income transfers?

-Education on how to gain and save their own money -Refundable tax expenditures

Think about advising a nonprofit agency dealing with contribution issues

-Grants -Federal purchase of service contracts -fundraising events

What does the textbook say about when Social Security benefits will begin to exceed tax collections?

-In 2020, the numbers of workers paying Social Security payroll taxes is 3 for every social securit beneficiary. This ratio is expected to decline by 2.2 by 2025 (p.219) - OASDI trust fund reserves will e depleted in 2035 - HI trust fund for Meducare Part A will be depleted by 2026 but both programs will be able to provide most scheduled benefits drawing from the program's income

What can we say about the anti-poverty effect of Social Security for the aged?

-Social Security lifts more people out of poverty than any oter social program -Has a strong redistributive effect, transferring resources than tose higher lifetime earnings to those lower lifetime earnings

*** Name two specific and significant differences between the ideology of human service executives and social entrepreneurs.

-Social entrepreneurs: a person who establishes business principles to further social welfare —-Shift from control-oriented implementation to responsive, decentralized institution building —-Believes that a dynamic marketplace of ideas and initiative is the basis of a thriving economy -Human service executive: an individual who is driven to succeed in helping people and organizations perform at an optimal level.

What do we mean by the dependency ratio?

-The number of current workers it takes to support a retired worker -The greater number of workers to beneficiaries, the lower the cost to each worker

What types of arguments does the anti-tax movement tend to make?

-The right believes- Favor autonomy, by tax cuts that will provide individuals with discretionary income with which they can choose the services they desire (p.202) -Tax revenues have long-tern harm on society

Be able to distinguish among a progressive, institutionalist, incrementalist, and residualist viewpoint with respect to social welfare benefits

-progressive: try to protect and help as many as possible -institutionalist: best promoted through collective action and the pooling of resources. -incrementalist: method of working by adding to a project using small incremental changes instead of a few (extensively planned) large jumps -Redidualist: sees government support for people's well-being as a safety net of last resort.

How long do UI benefits typically last?

26 weeks or less

How much payroll tax do workers' pay in Social Security and Medicare taxes?

7.65%

Where/how do many Americans get their health and welfare needs met?

A lot through employer provided benefits.

What type of person may be most likely to qualify for food assistance and receive the Earned Income Tax refund?

An employed single parent with children

What is the Conservative view of taxation to support social programs?

Cutting taxes when posible and prudent to do so, raising them overall only when necessary to balance the budget, and only in combination with spending cuts. It means when you run a surplus, you save it; you don't squander it.

What are some challenges to alleviating poverty through refundable tax expenditures?

Educating low income people about how to obtain the refunds

What's the impact of too little competition in human services?

High unregulated costs from no competition No incentive to adapt cost-effective practices that reduce waste

*** In your opinion, what is the most important phase of the policy process? Why? (Please be as specific as possible)

Implementation is the most important phase of policy, because if it is not done properly than the rest of the policy procecss was for naught. Implementation requires administrative support and motivated lobbyists to see through a policy. It may have unintended consequences once implemented that does not reflect the original goals or ideas intended by the policy. For example, the overturning of Roe V. Wade, was intended by groups to reduce the number of abortions, but it actually caused a higher number of abortions to occur. It also may be over-complicated and not serve the intended specific population due to struggling to navigate the "red tape". It could lose funding due to routine budget reallocations and then not be able to properly function.

Know something about George Bush's plan to modify Social Security

Included partial privitaization of the system, personal Social Security accounts, and options to permit Americans to divert a portion of thier Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments into the stock market and be able to pass it down to heirs

*** Indicate two points political conservatives would use to argue against and two points political liberals would use to argue for Social Security.

Liberal -Most successful anti-poverty program that has decreased elderly poverty rate -It supports millions of survivors of deceased workers and diabled Americans Indexed to inflation Impportant income supplement Conservatives -Benefits to the elderly are growing beyond the amount they have contributed and they are collecting longer -Savings disincentive by retirement checks which provide them less capital for investment

Does UI reflect a progressive tax?

No, it reflects a regressive tax as it provides a higher benefits amount for higher-wage workers than for lower-wage workers (p.218)

Know something about how for-profits impact the behavior of nonprofits

Once for-profits providers gain a significant share of a market, even nonprofit providers are likely to adopt commercial practices (p.161)

Who is most likely to have a government as "safety net of last resort" viewpoint?

Political Conservative

How does political activity fit with the NASW Code of Ethics?

Political practice is a professional obligation as social workers have a responsibility to make essential resources available to their clients (p.193)

How does the social security withholding tax and income tax burden compare?

Social security taxes are doubly regressive as Federal Insurance Credibility Act (FICA) is a flat tax (not adjusted for inflation) and income above $137,000 is tax free (p.209)

What are the main challenges facing Social Security?

The federal goverment borrow from the Social Secuirty trust fund

What do we mean by the "socialization of charity"?

The phrase "socialization of charity" refers to philanthropic contributions to the voluntary sector like: Community-based appeals that routinize contributions like United Way.

Of the various interest groups, who brings the most and least resources to bear on the political process?

The wealthy (in comparison to executives, professional, organized workers, working/welfare poor, and underclass).

Who is least likely to receive Unemployment Insurance benefits?

Women as they are more likely to be employed part-time and therefore do not meet minimum UI requirements

What does it mean to be asset-poor?

defined as having insufficient net worth - this includes savings and durable assets, such as a home or business - to cover three months of living expenses without income.