The Self-Sufficiency Project was a Canadian experiment

Experiment

An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...

 in the 1990s that provided a "generous, time-limited earnings supplement available to single parents who had been on welfare

Welfare

Welfare refers to a broad discourse which may hold certain implications regarding the provision of a minimal level of wellbeing and social support for all citizens without the stigma of charity. This is termed "social solidarity"...

 for a least a year, and who subsequently left welfare and found full-time work."

The study found that individuals offered a SSP subsidy

Subsidy

A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...

 were four percent more likely to stay on welfare to receive the benefit, but once people qualified for the SSP supplement, 44% left welfare dependence and were employed full-time--defined as working at least 30 hours a week. The program was interesting since increases in employment boosted payroll

Payroll

In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, wages, bonuses and deductions. In accounting, payroll refers to the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time. Payroll plays a major role in a company for several reasons...

 and other taxes to a large enough extent that the subsidy paid for itself.

Studies

Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

's David Card

David Card

David Edward Card is a Canadian labour economist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.Card earned his B.A. degree from Queen's University in 1978 and his Ph.D. degree in Economics in 1983 from Princeton University....

 has studied this extensively with several papers, revealing the aforementioned results.

See also

• Welfare Reform
  Welfare reform
  Welfare reform refers to the process of reforming the framework of social security and welfare provisions, but what is considered reform is a matter of opinion. The term was used in the United States to support the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act...
  
  
• Welfare state
  Welfare state
  A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
  
  

International:

• Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act
  Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act
  The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 is a United States federal law considered to be a fundamental shift in both the method and goal of federal cash assistance to the poor. The bill added a workforce development component to welfare legislation, encouraging...