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Old 08-31-2005, 07:03 AM   #67 (permalink)
lurkette
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Hey, Bill - it's not just you I was aiming the comment at. (I know your political proclivities ) It just seems that a lot of people get very bent out of shape about these anecdotal situations, and tend to draw conclusions about people on public assistance, or about the program in general, based on those anecdotes. The incidence of actual fraud is hard to pinpoint, and studies I saw ranged from 1.2 - 8-ish percent of welfare cases being referred for fraud investigation, ranging from a few thousand dollars in overpayment to hundreds of thousands of dollars in TANF and housing assistance over a period of several years. These are isolated cases, but my concern is that even though we KNOW we are just getting upset over individuals who cheat the system, the individual stories tend to aggregate into a cultural story: "welfare cheat." It started with Ronald Reagan's welfare queen and it's been a long haul ever since to change public perceptions of people on public assistance. I just think we need to be careful getting into high dudgeon over a few visible instances, and direct our energies somewhere more productive. (To threadjack further....for instance, why does TANF perversely require that mothers of infants go back to work within 6 months to keep benefits, and not provide for HIGH QUALITY day care assistance when all the developmental literature argues for the cost-effectiveness of having a consistent primary caregiver for at least 6 months after birth?)
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