welfare is only needed if the labor market is allowed to create jobs that don't provide viable living wages. If given a choice, people choose well-paid work of reliance on welfare. The problems do start when full-time employment doesn't prevent a family from being poor. This happens because wages were allowed to drop to a level that doesn't support decent human conditions.

My guess that since addressing this angers people who would hope to see wages low so they can maintain their business that has grown to be dependant on cheap labor - it's much easier to talk about lump sum transfers (conditional or conditional) as those do not impact the cost of labor, unemployment or living standards.