It’s called “generational poverty” and yes, there are rules and mores to the game. Moms pass it on to their daughters, who pass it on to the kids. I say moms because in most cases, there is not a father in the home. And I suggest they pick a northern county as a pilot county...we got white welfare queens up here too!
There is a whole subculture to welfare recipients. They operate like a black market. Which explains why they can get drugs.
Large bureaucracies are slow to react with no way to measure success and little motivation to improve performance. They are quick to claim success with manufactured evidence.
Criminal gangs, on the other hand, operate in a world of high risk and high reward. They react quickly to system changes and focus relentlessly on how to game the system. Their successes are secret, easily measured in cold hard cash, and failures may prove fatal.
Seriously, the state bureaucracy is playing checkers while criminal gangs are playing chess. If the money is out there the criminals will get it.