Minister of Industry Trade and Labor Eli Yishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party Tuesday announced a major overhaul of the Wisconsin "welfare-to-work" plan, with new emphasis placed on rehabilitation of unemployed people with special needs.

Yishai presented on Tuesday the report of a committee he appointed to review the plan, saying he would adopt the report's recommendations.

As part of the massive changes the plan will undergo, 25 percent of the plan's participants will no longer be required to spend 30 to 40 hours a week at the designated centers. Instead, they will be referred to diagnostic programs and employment rehabilitation.

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According to Yishai, people who have not held a job in the last five years, despite participation in the plan, mentally or physically handicapped people, drug addicts and/or homeless people were all sectors who were not gaining any ground by being forced to attend centers.

Immigrants who have specific qualifications, such as doctors or engineers, would benefit from being released from the Wisconsin Plan and allowed time to gain licenses to practice in Israel.

The original goal of the Wisconsin Plan was to get half of the 150,000 Israelis who received guaranteed-income allowances back to work. Participants were obligated to attend employment centers between 30 to 40 hours a week; otherwise their guaranteed income benefits would be revoked. The plan has so far been considered a failure.

At a press conference Tuesday, Yishai presented the committee's findings and explained their benefits.

He said men and women seven years shy of retirement age, whose chances of being incorporated into Israel's work force as a result of time spent in Wisconsin Plan centers is relatively low, would benefit from the reform. Single mothers with children under the age of 12 who are only able to work part time would also benefit from the relaxing of the plan's stringent requirements.

Under the reform, the people who don't benefit from spending time in the centers will be able to turn to an independent committee, comprised of social workers, psychologists and doctors, to explain their plight. The committee will decide what is best for them, rather than the management of the Wisconsin Plan itself, as was the case until now.

The implementation of the committee's recommendations is pending the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee. Yishai said that if the committee does not approve the reform, he would in turn not allow Wisconsin Plan centers to receive any more participants.

The planned reform will benefit not only the unemployed, but also the private operators of the actual centers, by relieving them of the responsibility of finding employment for the unemployable.

In addition, the reform calls for extending the program to include more participants, to replace those who have dropped out or found work. The private operators of the work centers don't profit unless they meet a certain quota of participants. Yishai said that the intake of more participants would be contingent on the implementation of the reform in the individual centers.

A report published in May by the National Insurance Institute concluded that the Wisconsin Plan had saved the state a total of NIS 6 million in guaranteed-income payments, however, only very few of the program's participants found work. In actuality, most of the apparent savings resulted from people who had dropped out of the program and had their privileges revoked.