Social Policy Analysis of Social Welfare

A social problem is an issue that relates to a perception of the society of a personal life of an individual. This perception can be a condition that the people of the society view as undesirable. This can include unmet human needs like health care, unemployment, poor housing and many others. A social problem affects most members of the society either directly or indirectly. For example, in the event of high unemployment rate of youth, they are directly affected due to poverty while the larger community is indirectly affected since they have to rely on them for survival. The larger community is also directly affected when the situation gets out of hand the unemployed youth turn to crime and violence as a result. The government is also affected since t has to invest its resources to curb the insecurity that arise from the unemployed youth. This leads to diversion of development funds to issues of combating crime. The aforementioned example of unemployment is an example of how individuals, families, communities and the society are affected by a social problem. It is difficult to pinpoint the causes of social problem distinctively since what causes a social problem in one society could not be causing a social problem in another. Some of these causes could be feeble mindedness of individuals in a society, immobility, weak social institutions, and industrialization. Inequality in the society may also cause social problems in the society.

The main goal of social welfare policy is to maintain the well-being of the society. A policy on social welfare is a collective response to the social problems. The objectives of social welfare would be to eradicate a social problem or to ignore it all together. The social policy should promote the general welfare of the public. The social worker should be aware of the political arena on practice and should advocate for change in policy and legislation to improve social conditions in order to meet the basic human needs and promote social justice. In the short-term, a social welfare policy aims at addressing the challenges that emanate from a social problem while in the long-term the policy aims at investing in changing the status quo that cause the social problem. With these, the short-term and the long-term goals of a social welfare policy support the main result of the policy.

The main benefit of a social welfare policy is the solutions that are realized by successfully implementing it. For instance jobs can be created; income generated etc. hence fighting poverty. A social welfare policy covers the individuals or places that are affected by the presence of a social problem. To identify the group of people to be eligible of the social welfare policy, a policy could select individuals as per their economic class, region or settlement. For the success of a social welfare policy, both the government and donors finance it. The administration of the policy is dependent on the mode of implementation or the initiator. The government can implement a social policy if it is under its constitutional mandate or through a collaboration of the civil society. The civil society can also implement a social welfare policy if the government fails to. The strengths of the social welfare policies are access to universal healthcare; the government takes good care to its citizens and improves their welfare. The weakness of the social welfare policies is that there are higher taxes charged to facilitate the policy, reduces competitiveness among the citizens while the universal welfare drains the economy. As well the social welfare if checks are not put it increases the dependency syndrome.

To improve a social welfare policy, there is need to conduct a research to highlight the weaknesses in the policy and assess the adversities that the policy causes. Theswe will help the policy makers in making adjustment in the social welfare policy so as to address the social problem amicably.