Report on 3 Welfare-to-Work Programs That Offer Cash Incentives

Encouraging Work, Reducing Poverty: The Impact of Work Incentive Programs, by Gordon L. Berlin, reports encouraging results for three programs designed to keep former welfare recipients working. The Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project, and Milwaukee’s New Hope Project offered cash and other incentives to people who worked at least 30 hours a week, on top of the pay they receive from their jobs. The report tracks single parents who participated in the programs. Mr. Berlin, a senior vice president at Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, provides statistics on income and employment as compared to other welfare-to-work programs, and argues that a case can be made for incorporating “full-time work” incentives into state programs. The report was financed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Publisher: MDRC, 16 East 34th Street, New York 10016-4326; (212) 532-3200; 58 pages; free at http://www.mdrc.org