<P> Social programs in the United States are welfare subsidies designed to meet needs of the American population . Federal and state welfare programs include cash assistance, healthcare and medical provisions, food assistance, housing subsidies, energy and utilities subsidies, education and childcare assistance, and subsidies and assistance for other basic services . Private provisions from employers, either mandated by policy or voluntary, also provide similar social welfare benefits . </P> <P> The programs vary in eligibility requirements and are provided by various organizations on a federal, state, local and private level . They help to provide food, shelter, education, healthcare and money to U.S. citizens through primary and secondary education, subsidies of college education, unemployment disability insurance, subsidies for eligible low - wage workers, subsidies for housing, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, pensions for eligible persons and health insurance programs that cover public employees . The Social Security system is sometimes considered to be a social aid program and has some characteristics of such programs, but unlike these programs, social security was designed as a self - funded security blanket--so that as the payee pays in (during working years), they are pre-paying for the payments they'll receive back out of the system when they are no longer working . Medicare is another prominent program, among other healthcare provisions such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program . </P>

Types of social welfare programs in the united states