Certainly poverty is measured by the government without counting government aid, so people who are poor enough for aid are still poor enough to count as poor after they receive aid.
That ensures that there is constant agitation to provide government aid. After 40 years, that obvious error has not been corrected, so it becomes reasonable to think it intentional. My cousin the social worker reported that California social workers have a case load quota, and if they move people off welfare, their case is dropped. If they drop below the magic number, the social worker is moved to part time status. That has the effect of discouraging any program that would move people off the welfare roles. Welfare Reform (pre-Obama) was intended to end that set of perverse incentives, but Obama has in unconstitutionally changed that back.
Well-said and enlightening.