Federal reforms in 1996 eliminated the entitlement to welfare and limited benefits to a maximum of five years in a lifetime. States can exempt up to 20 percent of their caseload from the federal time limit. Moreover, they can extend the time limit beyond five years, as long as benefits are paid with state dollars.
http://bit.ly/2fWO12B Friday, July 12, 2013 marks one year since the Obama Administration first declared that it had the authority to waive the work requirements for welfare recipients. Work requirements were created in the 1996 welfare reform law, and they have been key to the success of welfare reform in increasing work and earnings and reducing poverty and welfare dependence. No prior Administration has ever claimed to have authority to waive these requirements, and for one simple reason – because it doesn’t exist in law...
So this will be the third time you've avoided answering the question, which pretty much answers the question for us. Do you personally know an individual or individuals who continue to receive welfare after the 5 year limit? Or are you just assuming the people you see must be "on welfare"?
So if I don't know one personally, then none exist? You're being obtuse. You stated no one is collecting welfare for more than 5 years. If that's so, then why did the Feds give the states two ways to exceed the 5 year cap?
Arnie, let me review what you posted earlier "We have families around here that have known nothing but welfare. 4 generations over a span of 40-45 years is not uncommon. " You very clearly indicated that you knew of these mythical 4 generation welfare families who lived in your area, when in fact you do not. It seems that you have no evidence that such families exist, "around here" or anywhere else, you just like to think they do. I'm willing to bet if you posted your state I could show that they haven't taken advantage of any of the ways to exceed the 5 year cap. My point is you're running around with this completely false concept that generations of families who have known nothing but welfare is not uncommon, without any evidence, anecdotal or data based. If you're going to go around condemning a whole class of people for something, it's common human decency that you have some scintilla of evidence for it. I'm simply asking you to re-examine your preconceptions. You may have acquired them from a variety of places, and probably aren't even aware that you have them. Now that someone has pointed out that what you assumed to be true might not be, the rational thing to do is to think about why you believe what you do. If you gave me some fact based reasons to believe that there is wide-spread multi-generational life-time dependence on welfare in this country or even in your area I'd adjust my beliefs, wouldn't you do the same in the other direction?
Just to be pedantic for you, none of the posters here who claim there are vast numbers of people who live their whole lives on welfare actually know of any real people who live their whole lives on welfare. They've picked up this idea from preconceptions that probably go back to how they were raised and it's reinforced by the bubble of like-minded people they generally interact with and the sources of "information" through which they view the outside world. Their idea is false, and when called to actually identify even one real live case of this thing they're convinced is pervasive and that they absolutely certainly know to be true, they're unable to do so.