y. The former includes support services for the work participant, such as counseling, childcare, and training. The latter includes a higher rate of benefits for those who participate in work programs than someone would receive from social assistance alone. To actually show that workfare does not work, we must observe the United States, which has had federally mandated workfare programs for welfare recipients since 1967. Although the research on American workfare programs is inconclusive to some extent, many findings suggest that workfare is ineffective in reducing welfare costs and moving people from the welfare rolls into adequate employment. It was found that low-cost programs with few support services and a focus on immediate job placements had extremely limited effects. These did not produce sizable savings or reduce poverty or reduce large numbers of people from welfare. Furthermore, while expensive programs with extensive supports and services were more likely to place people in employment, there was a definite point of diminishing returns where the expenses outweighed the benefits. Even the limited success by some American workfare programs is highly questionable. Largely missing from the research is the discussion of workfare's major limitation: The lack of available adequate jobs. In the wide scheme of things, it doesn't matter whether the program is mandatory with no frills or voluntary and comprehensive if there are no jobs to fill. This is the "Achilles Heel" of all workfare programs. Even if some individuals manage to find jobs and get off welfare, if the unemployment rate for the area does not change, it is obvious that there has already been a displacement of some people in the workforce. What actually occurs is a shuffling of some people into the workforce and some out, with no net increase in the number of jobs. Workfare only increases the competition for jobs, it doesn't create them (except for those who...
