No Win… Facing the Ethical Perils of Welfare Reform

Abstract

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Art of 1996, or “welfare reform,” is highly controversial public policy. In every state the ‘devolution’ of federal entitlements has created intense debate and new legislation, either presaging the national changes or in response to them. In addition to being a source of deep political conflict, welfare reform has also created immediate and continuing dilemmas for the people who try to work within the new rules and for those struggling to change them.

The author reviews the context for understanding welfare reform as an ethical problem for the whole society, and uses examples drawn from her work as a teacher and welfare rights activist to illustrate the day-to-day problems that welfare reform forces upon women who use the system and workers whose job it is to help them. Finally, possibilities for responding at different levels are presented.

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