Benefit Transfers: A Cost-effective Route from Welfare to Work

As part of its "Welfare-to-work" programme, the new Labour government has adopted the Benefit Transfer Programme – allowing unemployment benefits to be translated into job subsidies. In this article, Denis Snower and Michael Orszag argue that this offers a cost-effective approach to tackling unemployment that should pay for itself over the long-term, and argue for the extension and development of this approach to helping the long–term unemployed.