Open AccessPerceptions of Welfare Recipient Fraud and Provider Fraud: A 20-Year Follow-Up
Author(s) -
Lucinda Lee Roff,
David L. Klemmack,
Debra Moehle McCallum,
Michael B. Conaway
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
advances in social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2331-4125
pISSN - 1527-8565
DOI - 10.18060/194
Subject(s) - welfare , government (linguistics) , index (typography) , social welfare , population , business , perception , social work , psychology , demographic economics , medicine , political science , law , economics , environmental health , philosophy , linguistics , neuroscience , world wide web , computer science
This study replicated Roff & Klemmack's (1983) investigation of adult Alabamians' opinions regarding the degree to which welfare recipients and welfare employees defraud the government. The majority of the current respondents continue to see recipients as dishonest, but the mean recipient fraud index score dropped from 13.34 to 11.34. As was the case in the earlier study, beliefs that recipients defraud the government predicted lower support for government programs. The percentage of respondents who believed welfare employees to be dishonest doubled from 15.4% to 30.0% from 1981 to 2000, and the mean worker fraud index score increased from 4.14 to 7.02. Consistent with the previous study, beliefs that welfare employees are dishonest predicted higher, not lower, support for government programs and services. Social workers should be aware that a growing proportion of the population questions the integrity of those running welfare programs.