Term Paper on "History and Philosophy of Social Work in the US"

Term Paper 12 pages (4090 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Philosophy of Social Work in the U.S.

The basic concerns of social welfare - poverty, disability and disease, the dependent young and elderly - are as old as civilized society itself. The means by which these concerns are addressed were once limited only by the laws of survival. Sharing another person's burden meant weakening one's own standing in the struggle of daily existence. However, as societies evolved, the dependence between members increased, so, as individuals became vulnerable, the society as a whole was affected, and systematic responses to disrupting factors were introduced.

Since the needs and the ability to provide for those needs are different in each society, there is no universal solution to the welfare problem. In some countries there is a firm distinction between social services (health care and education, which are meant to serve the entire population), and welfare services (aid directed towards vulnerable groups - the poor, the disabled or the delinquent. Another classification puts social services into the following categories: remedial services, which are designed to address the basic needs of individuals suffering from chronic or acute diseases, preventive services, which intend to reduce the pressures and obstacles of the distress caused by illnesses, and supportive services, which attempt to maintain and improve the functioning of individuals in society through employment, educational, health and other programs.

Social welfare services were initially emergency measures that were applied when all else failed. In today's world they are considered a necessary function of any society and a means to rescuing the endangered and fostering a society's well-being. The majority of social services are rendered to people who are unable, whether temporarily or permanently, to cope with the problems of everyday living. Recipients of this individual-based program are families facing the loss of income, illness or desertion, children and youths whose physical and moral welfare is at risk, the unemployed, the sick, the disabled or the elderly. Whenever possible, the social services also try to address the threats to family and personal independence.

The social services have constituted a mixed economy of welfare in advanced societies, an economy that involved statutory, voluntary and private sectors of welfare provisions. The role of personal services is very important, despite the fact that they account for only a small part of total welfare expenditures.. The most important increases in expenditures have occurred in social security systems, which are designed to provide assistance to specific categories of population on the basis of universal and selective criteria. The social security systems have gradually developed, beginning with the 1880's, and this development included fundamental change in the scope and aims of social policy, but also dramatic shifts in expert and popular opinion regarding the significance of social and personal causes of need.

There was widespread opposition in the United States towards social programs before the 1930s. The Great Depression changed all that. Federal intervention became necessary and increased as time passed by. Earlier government activity was reduced to unimportant initiatives at state or local level. The Social Security Act of 1935 not only provided federal grants for state and local public assistance to the elderly, dependent, blind and disabled children, but also set-up a federal old-age insurance scheme and financial support for unemployment insurance plans built according to federal guidelines. A provision for survivors was added a few years later, and one for disability followed.

One of the most important influences on the global development of social programs was that of Lord William Beveridge, who submitted to the Government in 1992 a report in which he stated that it is the responsibility of the Government to maintain full employment and that family allowances for all children after the first, health care programs for the entire population and a unified national scheme of social insurance run by states, backed-up by a social scheme at a national level, run by the central government should be immediately introduced. The United Kingdom applied Lord Beveridge's program from 1948, although making some compromises and modifications.

The period of rapid economic growth that began after World War II and ended as the oil crisis put a stop to the world's economy was a time of quick and important expansion for social insurance policies. Pensions were linked to the inflation rate, thereby protecting the aged, dynamic pension formulas indexed past pension contributions to the earnings at the time of retirement, flexible retirement providing for part-pension and part-time earnings in the years before retirement was introduced, equal social welfare rights for men and women appeared, providing for all disabled people on the foundation of the degree of disability, rather than the cause of disability, recognition of the additional needs arising from disability and of the needs of persons caring for the disabled, introduction of parental allowances in addition to family allowances or extension of same health-care right to all citizens were measures that found their way into the legislation after World War II.

The perception about social security services changed a lot in the United States in the last hundred years. The need for such services is evident and America would not be what it is without those services. However, there are sufficient critiques of the U.S. social programs, which never seem to envelop all the persons in need of help and to cover all the needs they should.

Budget cuts and lack of skills in managing social security funds have often lead to the impossibility of actually getting the job done. Images with homeless people sleeping in boxes and under bridges or not getting medical treatment because they do not have insurance are known all over the world and are not something for America to be proud about. Still, there are many persons who consider that 'freeloaders' plague the system without contributing to it in any way.

There are many variables that need to be considered when analyzing a social security program. The methods of provision for such programs are numerous and should be balanced with caution, in order to achieve the desired effect. An overview of these methods could prove useful. Many countries have adopted state schemes of compulsory insurance, although they once held employers legally liable for compensating victims of work accidents and for paying for their medical care.

Certain employers may be required to contribute to a provident scheme in order to provide a lump-sum payment in the event of death or disability or on retirement. The difference from a social insurance scheme is that each worker usually has his/her personal account from which he or she can draw, if certain events occur. The essential difference is that there is no pooling of risks among members, as there is in a social insurance scheme.

Compulsory social insurance provides medical benefits and cash benefits in such cases as sickness, disability, widowhood and old age. These are essentially a tax on earned income. Employers have always tried (and succeeded in some cases) to transfer the burden of their part of the contribution to consumers (by charging higher prices) or to their own employees (simply by paying less cash). The social insurance approach has several disadvantages, when it comes to meeting social needs or reducing poverty. Benefits should be paid to those who have contributed, so persons who never worked cannot benefit from such schemes. Another problem is that, if benefits are related to the amount paid, women, for instance, are discriminated, because they had to face family responsibilities. The most important issue is that, if benefits are linked to earnings, the people who are most likely to need them, the poor, will not actually be protected.

To fight these problems, some countries have made certain benefits available to all residents and financed them out of taxation. The most common example is the family allowance. The provision for children should not depend on the parent's employment status. The tendency is to apply this principle to medical benefits, since all citizens have a right to health care.

Another solution to the general problems of society, aside from social insurance and benefits to all residents is social assistance. The idea is based on the concept of need, so declarations of income, family size and other circumstances are required. Income and capital of a person are taking into consideration when assessing his/her chance to be included in such a program. In some countries, social assistance plays a residual role, by providing a less favorable level of support than social insurance benefits do. In other, and the United Kingdom is such a country, social assistance plays a considerable role, its purpose being to supplement social insurance benefits for those without other sources of income, as well as providing for those without rights to benefits.

The United States use the social assistance concept to meet the medical care needs of low-income persons under the Medicaid program. Only households headed by a single parent are eligible for the Aid to Families for Dependent Children Program, which creates incentives for desertion or fictitious desertion. Other programs for… READ MORE

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