Designing Work-Focused Welfare Replacement Programmes

Jean Rogers

For ten years Wisconsin has been designing and reforming its public aid programmes to help families become economically self-sufficient. This has involved refocusing the system from cash entitlements and educational aids to one based squarely on work, and the ongoing reform of the welfare system has consistently stressed immediate attachment to the workforce.

The results are evident: work, not entitlements, is the best and clearest path to self-sufficiency for low-income families. Since January 1987 Wisconsin has cut its welfare caseload by more than 50%, and is saving almost $30 million a month in welfare payments. The latest refinement is Wisconsin Works, or W2, which eliminates the open-ended cash entitlement altogether and replaces it with a system focused solely on work.

This paper looks in some detail at the ten broad foundational axioms and three action plans used by Wisconsin, and which could be considered by other states and indeed other countries.

The paper concludes that the greatest benefit of replacing welfare is not the reduction on caseloads, nor the financial savings, but removing the stigma of welfare.