Twenty-one percent of the participants in the Wisconsin Plan, a welfare-to-work program, benefited from the scheme, according to new research by the National Insurance Institute. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will decide on the implementation of the program later this week.

The research, conducted with the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, covered nearly 16,000 people who entered the program on August 1, 2005. Their situation was compared with that of people who receive welfare stipends and reside in areas not included in the Wisconsin Plan.

The research is aimed at helping the government decide whether to include other regions in the plan, which is being conducted as an experiment in four regions across the country. The plan has been criticized as being too stringent on the less affluent.

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The research suggests that the Wisconsin Plan, which aims to introduce welfare recipients onto the job market, has helped some participants find a job after they had been unsuccessful for many years. Others managed to add on to their employment through the program.

According to the research, 17 percent of participants who had never had a job before joining the plan were still employed 15 months into the program. By contrast, only 7 percent of the individuals belonging to the control group managed to find work.

The results are even more impressive when it comes to participants who had been working before joining the plan, with 57 percent of them increasing their participation in the job market. Only 19 percent of the people belonging to the control group reached similar achievements.

According to the research, individuals from both the control and study groups earn similar wages, which are on average very close to the minimum wage at approximately 20 NIS per hour.

Of the initial participants, 47 percent quit during the 15 months. More than half received increased income through the program, which made them ineligible for the welfare payments they received before joining the scheme.

Among the other issues to be resolved about the Wisconsin Plan is a recent dispute between the treasury and Industry Minister Eli Yishai, who seeks to exempt anyone over 45 from participating in the program as a prerequisite for guaranteed-income allowances.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to decide tomorrow on whether to approve the exemption after reviewing a report prepared by a sub-committee headed by the director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Ra'anan Dinur. The report recommends some exemptions for elderly and ill participants in the program who have suffered because of the plan's requirements.

The report, however, does not recommend exempting individuals over 45 years old. Moreover, the Prime Minister's Office notes that they have substantially benefited from the program. Sources at the PMO point out that according to the study, 45 to 49-year-olds have actually fared better than their 25 to 29-year-old counterparts, with 28 percent of them improving their conditions in the job market.