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Welfare is the general welfare of people in a society. Welfare generally speaks of the good health, happiness and safety of people. The state or government is the main provider of the social welfare program and these include hospitals, schools, good roads, communication facilities, security of life and property, access to affordable habitable housing, etc. The measure of economic well-being (MEW) is a measure to assess the standard of living. It was proposed by two economists named William Nordhaus and James Tobin in the year 1972.
People’s standard of living and welfare are greatly raised by the joint efforts of homeowners, domestic workers, Red Cross volunteers, members of religious and civic clubs, etc.
Welfare state – This is a system whereby the government provides a set of free services to people who need them. For example, free education, free health care, medical care and money for unemployed people (in developed countries, America and Britain), elderly care and so on. Well-being can be measured broadly from two perspectives:
1. Quality: This is in the form of salary (high or low), piped water, hospitals, electricity, security of life and property, food, self-sufficiency, access to banking and financial services, control of manageable rate of inflation, stable economy (i.e. effective management resources), gainful employment, access to property accumulation, etc.
2. Quantitative: This is in the form of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross National Product (GNP), Per capita income, etc. All these levels are low in developing countries like Nigeria, Ghana, etc. but high in developed countries like Britain, USA, etc. Inflation is also an example but a moderate rate of inflation is preferred, i.e. a single digit rate from 1 to 9.
Diverse programs to further improve care/care programmes
The government of a country provides for the welfare of its citizens and the individual participates in these programs for its improvement. These programs can be classified under the following:
1. National Guarantee Fund (NPF): This program is designed to take care of workers in the private sector. Here workers make contributions under the scheme called Pension Scheme (CPS) which allows workers to contribute a certain amount of money intended for the care of retired members.
2. Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF): Established in 1993 by Decree No. 73 to replace the National Provident Fund (NPF). The reason for this is to allow a more comprehensive social security scheme for private sector employees in Nigeria and to allow these workers to contribute 2% while the employers contribute 5% of the basic salary for workers retirement. A number of benefits under this scheme will include pension and grant; survivors’ pension and grant; pension and disability grant; Finally a funeral grant.
3. National Housing Fund (NHF): This fund was set up to create a way for contributors to access their own or personal homes. Each worker will contribute 2% of his basic monthly salary. Accumulation allows them to borrow from the house mortgage to facilitate their house venture.
4. Education Tax Fund (ETF): Under this scheme, all private companies are expected to pay 2% of their profits after taxes to the government which is pooled together to carry out important programs in the field of education.
There are other very important programs that have helped improve people’s well-being. These include the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), free education, universal basic education (UBE), government grants/scholarships, and the Cooperative Access Scheme.
Why do some of these programs fail?
Some of these programs fail for the following reasons:
I. Greed
secondly. bureaucracy
Third. Government actions and inaction caused a difficult chokehold
Fourthly. No proper records
Fifth – Not transferring the fund
