Poverty, Welfare, and Self-Sufficiency: Implications for the Social Work Profession

Abstract

Social workers who feel having a legitimate mandate to carry the social justice core value of their profession must first grasp the depth and breadth of poverty. These workers must then comprehend the sociopolitical underpinnings of welfare policies intended to benefit their clients. This paper explored the scope of poverty in the United States; assessed antipoverty policies in relation to their failure to produce long-term self-sufficiency outcomes for recipients; and discussed two appropriate social work interventions – empowerment practice and social advocacy – for working with marginalized populations, including welfare recipients. It is concluded that, because the American welfare state is fundamentally flawed, people living in poverty may experience difficulties reaching their full potential if stranded for too long on the rolls of means-tested benefits. This paper proposed a self-sufficiency framework for poverty and social welfare stakeholders.

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