English Welfare Reform

Did you know that total federal state and welfare spending in 2000 was $434 billion dollars, or $5600 from each household that year? Holy cow! Kudos to Bill Clinton for passing reform in 1996, effectively limiting the length of time for unemployment welfare benefits to 5 years (consecutive or nonconsecutive), and requires recipients to begin working after 2 consecutive years, which greatly reduced the number of people on welfare (however this number is on the rise). Great Britain is planning some changes I think we should try to emulate here in the States. There is a difference between unemployment insurance and welfare, as explained at the bottom of this page.

Under the proposed plan, once a claimant has been on welfare for a year, they must complete four weeks' community service. The requirement is greatly increased after two years, to full-time volunteerism. Should we do the same here?

Disabled claimants would be required to get a new medical exam, this time with a doctor who is not their general practitioner. Our Social Security website states that "The law requires that we review your case from time to time to verify that you are still disabled." Currently "from time to time" is defined as:
  • Medical improvement expected—if your condition is expected to improve within a specific time, your first review will be six to 18 months after you ­started getting disability benefits.
  • Improvement possible—if improvement in your medical condition is possible, your case will be reviewed about every three years.
  • Improvement not expected—if your medical ­condition is unlikely to improve, your case will be reviewed only about once every five to seven years.

Is there really enough oversight into SS Disability?

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