Although abuse of the system is inevitable, social welfare payments are essential to protect the rights that citizens have to a guaranteed minimum income in a democratic society. Do you agree or disagree?

In current society, it is considered that a democratic society needs to protect its citizens by paying social welfare. In my opinion, I agree that these payments coupled with constant control and regulation could be effective, given that it provides the basic necessities of life and minimizes the rate of poverty-related crimes. Firstly, the social welfare payments can provide some basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, and clothes. A case in point is those families who come to Canada as refugees and, mostly, they do not have money or even a place to stay at night. However, after applying for the social welfare program, the Canadian government can help them monthly, not only with an amount of money, but also with entry-level job positions to start a new life. Thus, without this help, the refugees would never have the capacity to survive in a new country. At the same time, the crimes related to poverty can be minimized through the social welfare payments. For example, although in Brazil there are still a lot of low income communities where the crime rate is impressively high, since 2010 the Brazilian government has performed a program known as “Bolsa Família” which pays a bi-weekly an amount of money per child per family. After this program implementation, the poverty-related crimes such as robbery decreased, given that the government support improved the life quality for those families. Hence, helping poor comunities with social welfare payments brings the possibility of minimizing crime occurrence. To conclude, these type of social payments could be effective, provided that the governments control intensively those programs and create specific laws. I strongly suggest to spread awareness campaigns to start intensifying the society education about the social welfare payments importance.