Programme Effectiveness in Activating Welfare Recipients to Work: The Case of Hong Kong

Some theories and research based on data in the West have implied the effectiveness of measures using the work-first approach, human capital development, community work experience, and financial incentives to promote welfare recipients’ transition from welfare to work. Nevertheless, the generality of the implication does not hold without examining the effectiveness in a non-Western setting. The present study thus employs survey data from 1,240 welfare recipients in Hong Kong to investigate the effectiveness of various measures for raising the recipients’ work motivation and diminishing their welfare dependency. The measures examined include the Intensive Employment Assistance Project (IEAP), Community Work (CW) Programme and Disregarded Earnings (DE) arrangements. Findings reveal the effectiveness of these three measures. Particularly, help received from various services of the IEAP was the principal factor in the effectiveness of the IEAP and the IEAP was effective for welfare recipients who were older or less skilled. The findings thus offer support to the generality of the claim about the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programmes.