Clinton OKs Welfare Plan That Phases In Time Limit : Reform: Only younger recipients would initially be subject to the measure. They would have to exit the rolls and get a job after two years.

President Clinton has approved a plan to phase in his welfare reform proposal by initially requiring only younger welfare recipients to accept work after two years on the rolls, senior Administration officials say.

But the Administration is still sharply arguing on how to structure its welfare plan beyond that core program, as new estimates for the cost of the reforms range from $28 billion to $58 billion over 10 years, Administration officials said.

“I think it’s highly unlikely that the most expensive version will be chosen,” one Administration official said. “We’ve presented the options. The President has to make these decisions.”

The less-expensive estimates include less child care for the working poor, less money to states to try out various welfare experiments and no provisions to make it easier for two-parent families to join the welfare rolls.

“The core promise concerning work is in the bank, and the question is how much more can we afford,” another knowledgeable official said.

For weeks, the Administration has struggled to find offsetting cuts or taxes to fund its welfare plan.

But almost every funding idea that it has floated has drawn intense internal and external opposition.

As a result, many officials have been arguing that the Administration will have to scale back some of the more expensive and less essential options considered by the panel that assembled the recommendations.

The new 10-year calculations are likely to strengthen the voices of those within the Administration arguing for the most limited plan.

Under elements of the proposal the President has approved, the two-year time limit on welfare recipients initially will apply only to young recipients--probably those born in 1972 or later. As the population ages, the number of recipients subject to the time limit will grow annually--thus increasing the government’s cost for providing job training, child care and, in some instances, public employment.

The Administration has repeatedly stressed that rival proposals designed by Republicans in the Senate and House also call for spending substantial additional sums to help people move off welfare.