GOP Welfare Plan Aims to Put Recipients to Work

House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) and a GOP task force unveiled a five-year, $1.4-billion welfare plan Thursday that they said would put more people to work than a Democratic proposal costing $5.3 billion.

“Its primary focus is not benefit increases. Its primary focus is to help people get off welfare,” said Rep. Hank Brown of Colorado, ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means public assistance subcommittee.

Michel is the prime sponsor of the bill, which Brown said has 101 co-sponsors and is supported by President Reagan.

Under the Republican plan, parents of children over 6 months old would have to participate in work, education, training or a job search. States would have to subsidize day care during the program and, depending on income, after the parent is in the work force.

Not in the bill are a requirement that states allow two-parent unemployed families to receive welfare benefits, and a financial incentive to states to raise cash benefits to a minimum standard. Both are in the five-year, $5.3-billion Democratic bill approved by the Ways and Means Committee.

The GOP bill also would take strong steps to increase states’ collection of child support from absent parents, including mandatory, immediate wage withholding when a court order is issued.