I feel like there is nothing we can to to craft social policy to genuinely help people/lift them out of poverty. I also work for a popular government agency that is designed to out money, and when I started I thought I was going to have a career helping people truly in need. Instead I feel jaded and bitter about the mission of the agency. It sucks!
"The road to hell is paved in good intentions."
A criminal will rob you only once. A man out to save you will never leave you alone. (paraphrase)
Those that try (not necessarily you there Giggles) to "craft social policy" to help someone, inevitably end up unintentionally crippling those they seek to help, and / or cause massive collateral damage (often times unseen to the crafters of the policy) elsewhere with "unintended consequences". There are always perverse incentives created - based on your "jaded and bitter" comment, I'm guessing you've probably seen more than a few of them.
There's always those who want to "fix" a problem with yet another round of tweaking "social policy" where the problem to be "fixed" was in fact caused by a preceding round of social policy "fixes". Rare is the person who says "lets undo that last mistake since we now understand the problems it caused" - nay, instead it's always "layer on another round of fixes" that ALWAYS cause even more problems, which then need their own fixes, with their own problems, which need further fixes, which....in an endless cycle (which is to be expected, since it takes a brave soul to admit their previous "fix" was in fact a mistake). And those subsequent rounds of "fixes" are always more authoritarian since those who push for these things seemingly never are able to make the supposed fixes good enough to have people willing to do them of their own accord. If the "fix" is so good, why is it that the powers that be have to stick a gun in everyone's face? If the fix is great, offer it up as a voluntary program to participate in and people will freely flock to it as they see the obvious benefit of participating. The true nature (controlling, authoritarian) of those who favor such mandatory "fixes" comes through in their proposed policies.
Giggles - if you want to help, I'd suggest a different path, go help a person. Quit trying to "help" society via policy - the magnitude of the problem is too great, you'll cause more problems than you "solve", and it'll overwhelm you (your helpless feeling). Help one person, then another, and then another, one by one, by one.....you will see the results. Massive faceless, one size fits all programs (e.g. "crafting social policy") always fail in the end and are inherently based on violence and authoritarian principals. Success in helping people is in voluntary cooperation of like minded and like motivated people, community, local, small, personal, individualized. You'll never feel helpless if you use these principals.
Best of luck to you.
One final thing - some people can not be helped. They live to wallow in their own metaphoric filth. No matter what you do, they'll find a way to keep on "failing" since that's what they like. Don't try to lift them up since all they want is to drag you down, where you can't help anyone. Don't waste your time on such people. Help only those that actually
want to "improve" their situation.