U.S. Subsidy for Hiring Those on Welfare Weighed

Federal subsidies to companies that provide jobs for welfare recipients are under consideration by President Clinton’s welfare reform study group, the New York Times reported in today’s editions.

A confidential working paper circulated among Administration officials proposed giving corporations up to $5,000 for each welfare recipient they hire, the paper said.

Options include paying employers directly to subsidize the wages of people taken off the welfare rolls, or paying placement agencies a fee for each job they find.

The proposal is one of many ideas generated by a 32-member group of federal officials appointed by Clinton to consider ways of overhauling the welfare system, a key pledge in his campaign.

Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it,” and impose a two-year limit on benefits. After that, he said, welfare recipients should have to find work or perform community service.

Subsidies have been tried occasionally during the past three decades but have encountered problems, including stigmatizing the subsidized people and paying employers to hire people they would have hired anyway, the Times said.