What is "Welfare?"
Welfare is a term that people in the U.S. have used in different ways over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the 1930s, the term meant "well-being" and had no attachment to public relief or assistance. In the postwar period, it came to be associated with a specific New Deal program that no longer exists: Aid to Families with Dependent Children. When individuals refer to welfare today, they usually mean social programs that help people experiencing poverty, such as food stamps, housing subsidies, and utility assistance.
The Emergence of "Welfare"
"Welfare," as we know it, began during the Great Depression.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was the worst economic crisis the world has ever known. And it led US policymakers to create the welfare state. The Social Security Act of 1935 created a social safety net with two tiers of cash assistance.
On the higher tier is social insurance. Social Security and Unemployment Insurance are programs that Americans can apply for IF they have a history of employment. Through wages and payroll taxes, citizens gain the right to claim these benefits. Social insurance allows workers to rest assured that in times of unemployment and old age, they will still have cash on hand. The tie between wage-earning and Unemployment and Social Security led many Americans to call these "earned benefits."
On the lower tier is means-tested assistance. Disability Insurance and Aid to Dependent Children were designed for populations unable to work. Access to a monthly income through these programs, therefore, required undergoing a "means test." A person only qualifies for Disability if they are disabled. Similarly, an individual qualified for Aid to Dependent Children if they were a dependent (meaning fatherless) child. Since the means-test was divorced from a history of employment, these programs came to be called "unearned benefits" or "handouts."
The Social Security Act of 1935
The New Deal's two-tiered social safety net contributed to the transformation of the term "welfare." In the decades following the 1930s, a person who said "welfare" was referring specifically to Aid to Dependent Children. And the term took on a new definition of means-tested cash assistance.
.png)
The Two-Tiered
U.S. Welfare State
The Demonization of "Welfare"
"Welfare" became a "dirty word" after World War II.
New Deal policymakers imagined Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) as a program that allowed white children to stay at home with their widowed mother. Previously, fatherless children (often called half-orphans) went into orphanages because their mother could not earn enough money to care for them. New Dealers designed ADC to provide white widows with an income so they could stay home to raise their children.
At first, the program worked as policymakers had imagined. Images (like the one to the left) educated the public about the program, depicting white mothers and white children as the beneficiaries. The majority of recipients were white women whose husbands had passed away. The rolls changed in the 1940s and 1950s, however. The number of families receiving ADC grew significantly during the 1950s and 1960s (see the line graph below). Also, more divorced or never-married mothers and women of color gained access to the program (donut charts below). As the program grew and changed, so did the public's perception of it.
There has always been a stigma to poverty and reliance on assistance, but "welfare" became especially demonized in the 1960s because the ADC rolls had changed. The number of recipients who were widowed was dwarfed by those who were divorced, separated, or never-married. Women of color also gained access to ADC despite state officials' attempts to withhold public funds from them. White widows were no longer the imagined recipient. Instead, many incorrectly believed that "welfare" benefited Black women who refused to marry or work. They vilified recipients and made "welfare" into a dirty word.
Growth of ADC Rolls
Data from Frances Fox Piven & Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor, Appendix Source Table 1.
Data from Premilla Nadasen, Rethinking the Welfare Rights Movement, 8; Nadasen, Welfare Warriors, 7.
Racial Breakdown of ADC Cases
1950
1961
The Push for Welfare "Reform"
By the end of the 1960s, everyone hated welfare even the people who received it.
As the 1960s came to a close, welfare was unpopular among all segments of the population. Welfare rights activists criticized the inadequate payments and dehumanizing treatment from caseworkers. Many voters and politicians across the political spectrum blamed it for creating "dependency." What they disagreed about was how to reform it or what new program should replace it. During the political debate, the U.S. came the closest it has ever come to having a universal basic income.
In the 1970s, individuals from all political perspectives supported replacing welfare with a universal basic income. Conservative politicians and economists, such as Richard Nixon and Milton Friedman, promoted the economic benefits of a Negative Income Tax. Liberals, including Sargent Shriver and John Kenneth Galbraith, also supported income guarantees. Radical groups like the Black Panthers and the National Welfare Rights Organization pushed for the right to an income. Though people disagreed
about what form a universal basic income should take, they agreed that it was preferable to welfare.
President Richard Nixon, a supporter of a universal basic income. Photo from Library of Congress.
![A National Welfare Rights Organization pinback button with an American flag design. The NWRO logo is in white print where the stars would typically be on the flag. Blue text throughout the white stripes of the flag reads [I Support A Guaranteed Adequate Income For All Americans]. The exterior edge of the button has the manufacturer's information. The back of the button has a metal pin with a clasp.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cf6343_607ce8e4febf4f279bf06e4734a70db2~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_457,h_306,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Screenshot%202026-08-07%20at%2011_14_13%E2%80%AFAM.png)
National Welfare Rights Organization pin, from the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of T. Rasul Murray
Congress considered two types of universal basic income from 1968 to 1974. Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) sponsored the National Welfare Rights Organization's Guaranteed Adequate Income. This legislation would have awarded $5,500 a year to a family of four. President Richard Nixon offered the Family Action Plan, written by liberal social scientist Patrick Moynihan, that entitled a family of four to $1,600. Congress debated legislation for both plans over those six years.
What was at stake in this debate was whether the U.S. welfare state should have two tiers. Both the Guaranteed Adequate Income and Family Action Plan would have ended ADC. Where they differed was in the abolition or preservation, respectively, of the means test. The National Welfare Rights Organization's bill would have thrown out the welfare state's lower tier. By eliminating all means-tested programs (ADC, Disability Insurance, Food Stamps, etc.), the bill sought to restructure the welfare state so that all programs were social insurance. Nixon's bill would have ended ADC, but it kept the means test. To obtain his $1,600 yearly income, a family had to prove their eligibility. As such, Nixon's failed legislation would have maintained the two tiers, keeping the divide between social insurance and means-tested assistance.
![A poster printed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and used in the Poor People’s Campaign. The top half of the poster is white and the bottom half is black. Centered black and white cursive text and white, stylized, cursive text that reads [... with the black man it's welfare / with the whites, subsidies.” / MARTIN LUTHER KING JR]. In the bottom left corner is white, stylized, block text that reads, [S.C.L.C. POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN]. In the bottom right corner is the name of the graphic designer, [OSTROW] printed in white, stylized, block text. There is an inscription written in black ink on the back of the poster that reads, [GIFT OF FAYE PORCHE].](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cf6343_a9845e0858da4dc99c57af5895b7e6fd~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_456,h_574,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Screenshot%202026-08-07%20at%2011_34_14%E2%80%AFAM.png)
Poor People's Campaign Poster, 1968, from Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Vincent A. deForest in honor of John deForest
Yet the U.S. does not have a universal basic income today. In the early 1970s, Conservatives, Liberals, and radicals all supported the creation of an income floor. But nothing made it into law. The divide between social insurance and means-tested assistance remained. Unemployment Insurance and Social Security continued to be considered earned benefits rather than "welfare." ADC and other means-tested programs continued to be demonized as "handouts" going to the "undeserving poor." For many white, nonpoor Americans, "welfare" was associated with African American families. White middle-class families could no longer recognize how Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and other social insurance programs were just as much a part of the U.S. welfare state.
The "End of Welfare as We Know It"
As the hope for a universal basic income faded, the demand for welfare reform remained.
What also remained after the 1960s and 1970s was a near-universal hatred of welfare and the widespread acceptance that some kind of reform was necessary. Far-right politicians and hardline conservatives capitalized on this moment, building support for ending welfare. The most well-known was Ronald Reagan. His political career in the 1970s and 1980s was instrumental in building the political will to end welfare. But he was unable to achieve his most ambitious goal, abolishing the entire welfare state. But he shifted the discourse significantly, making way for "the end of welfare as we know it" under President Bill Clinton.
Ronald Reagan, President from 1980 to 1988. Photo from Library of Congress.
Though Ronald Reagan despised the entire welfare state, political expediency led him to focus his vitriol on means-tested assistance. Early in his political career, he said, "Unemployment Insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders." While president, he cut Social Security by raising the retirement age, forcing workers to labor longer before receiving their pensions. There was far too much support for Unemployment Insurance and Social Security for him to pass significant changes through Congress. Instead, he focused most of his attacks on "unearned benefits." He slashed funding for programs everyone already despised, ADC, and other means-tested programs such as Disability Insurance and Food Stamps.
After the 1980s, there was enough political will to "end welfare as we know it." Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton used that phrase as a campaign slogan in 1992. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 delivered on that promise. This act repealed ADC, replacing it with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). In doing so, this act ended cash entitlements. No longer would poor families receive a monthly check purely because their income fell below the poverty line. Welfare, in the way that people thought about that term, was gone.
If welfare ended in 1996, what do people mean when they use that term today?
The term "welfare" has not fallen out of use. It still appears in the news, in political campaigns, and in everyday conversations. How the word is used bears some similarities to the postwar period. But today, the term is vague and does not reflect the reality of the U.S. welfare state.
Many people incorrectly believe that welfare is a monthly check that families receive purely because they are experiencing poverty. The only program that fit that description, ADC, ended in 1996. What replaced it, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, is a time-limited work program administered and partially funded by the state with block grants from the federal government. Poor families—whether led by a single parent or two parents—can apply and, once admitted, access its benefits for 5 years. Once a family’s 5 years are used up, they are no longer eligible, no matter how dire their economic situation. While on the rolls, they receive cash in exchange for performing work requirements. No family experiencing poverty in the U.S. receives a monthly check composed of federal funds just for being poor.
In a much more real sense, the term welfare has become a stand-in for the various means-tested programs that still exist. A welfare recipient might receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly called food stamps), cash that can only be spent on food. They might get housing assistance—public housing, vouchers, or Section 8. They might even get utilities assistance, money that must go to the gas, electric, and water companies. But they do not receive a check from the federal government that they can spend however they see fit.
Few Americans consider social insurance programs such as Unemployment Insurance and Social Security to be welfare. Nevertheless, those programs are core facets of the U.S. welfare state.