Study Reports Tax Savings, Lasting Jobs in Workfare

An in-depth study of mandatory work programs in California and two other states has found for the first time that workfare can help welfare recipients find permanent jobs and ultimately save the taxpayers money.

Welfare recipients in San Diego, Baltimore and Arkansas who were required to look for jobs and perform community service work found permanent employment at a somewhat higher rate than recipients who were left on their own, according to findings of the New York-based Manpower Demonstration Research Corp.

“State programs that we have studied are increasing the employment of welfare recipients and, in some cases, reducing the costs of welfare,” said Barbara B. Blum, president of the research organization. “Moreover, for the first time, there is reliable evidence that several different approaches--including a form of workfare--are cost-effective to operate.”

The researchers noted, however, that the gains in employment among workfare participants were not as dramatic as workfare proponents have claimed in the past. Welfare recipients who did not take part in the work program found jobs at almost the same rate as workfare participants, according to the study.

‘Has Engendered Controversy’

“Unpaid work experience (or workfare) has engendered the most controversy, but has not turned out to be either as punitive as its critics feared or as praiseworthy as its advocates claimed,” the study concluded.

The Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. was founded in 1974 and financed by the federal government and the Ford Foundation to evaluate the performance of new social programs.

The organization’s latest findings come at a time when work and training programs for able-bodied recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children are gaining nationwide popularity, even among some liberals who had previously opposed the idea of mandatory work for welfare recipients.

More than half the states already are experimenting with a variety of voluntary and mandatory work, training and job search programs, including workfare in which recipients are required to perform community service work in exchange for aid.

Earlier this month, President Reagan called for an overhaul of the nation’s welfare system and suggested that workfare be a key part of any reform.

California last year enacted one of the most complex programs in the nation that ultimately will require welfare recipients to choose between performing community service work, taking job training or going to school in exchange for their aid.

The study, released for publication today, is unusually sophisticated because it tracked thousands of welfare recipients long after they participated in job search or workfare programs and compared their progress with a control group of welfare recipients who did not take part in the programs.

Although the nature of the work and job search programs differed from state to state, participants in all three programs had a higher rate of employment and a higher rate of earnings than welfare recipients who were left on their own, MDRC found.

“Given the fact that three different programs operating in very different environments achieved these quite similar effects, no one model--including workfare--is at this point recommended for national replication,” said the report, which is part of a continuing 11-state study.

Single Parents Profit

The researchers found that the programs gave the greatest financial benefit to welfare recipients who were considered the least employable--single parents, usually mothers, who had been on welfare rolls for longer periods of time.

However, the programs were not as effective for those who had been employed recently--generally the heads of two-parent households, usually men, who had turned to welfare when their unemployment benefits ran out. The researchers suggested that training and education could be more effective than workfare for this group.

The study also found that in San Diego and Arkansas, enough workfare participants left the welfare rolls to create a savings for taxpayers during the study periods--even though the initial costs of such programs can be substantial. Baltimore broke even on its program, which combined job search, education, training and workfare.

San Diego offered two programs, a job search workshop followed by workfare and job search by itself. During the 18-month study period, 61% of the workfare participants found jobs, compared with 60.4% of those who took part in job search activities only. Of the welfare recipients who did not take part in either program, 55% found work.

Both San Diego programs offered financial benefits to the participants and the taxpayers when compared with the control group, researchers concluded. But the workfare program offered the greatest long-term gains.

Workfare participants showed average earnings of $700 more during the period studied and received an average of $288 less in welfare aid than the welfare recipients who did not take part in either program, the study found.

Of the participants in the Arkansas program, which combined job search and workfare, 19% found employment during a nine-month study period, compared to 14% of the welfare recipients in the control group.

In Baltimore, 51% of the participants in the program found work, while 44% of the welfare recipients found jobs on their own during a 15-month study period.