The U. S. Small Business Administration has been dedicated to helping entrepreneurs open new businesses, expand existing enterprises, and sustain success in their operations since 1953.

Now, in this era of low unemployment, the SBA is helping small businesses gain access to a new pool of potential workers as well as helping former welfare recipients become entrepreneurs. The enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PL 104-193) of 1996 along with the President's Welfare to Work Initiative have made this possible.

Small businesses represent the "work" side of the welfare to work equation. Small firms provide the largest potential source of jobs for individuals leaving public assistance. By hiring former welfare recipients, small business owners can tap into significant wage subsidies and tax breaks as well as gain access to new workers. Additionally, 61 percent of welfare recipients have prior work experience that they can bring to their new jobs.

The SBA has an important role in the President's Welfare to Work Initiative: connecting small businesses with service providers that can provide training to, and support for, individuals leaving public assistance; providing technical assistance to welfare recipients who have the potential to become entrepreneurs; and linking small businesses with federal resources that can support the businesses' welfare to work efforts. The SBA has a national network of 10 regional offices, 69 district offices, 16 branch offices, approximately 1,000 small business development center locations, over 60 women's business centers, 43 business information centers, 15 one-stop capital shops, 21 tribal business information centers, and nearly 800 Service Corps of Retired Executives locations. This makes the SBA ideally positioned to link small business owners, service providers, and potential entrepreneurs to local resources and information on welfare to work efforts.

• Provide leadership in the small business community by connecting small business employers to local welfare to work efforts and job-ready workers
• Target welfare to work efforts towards small businesses in industries that are experiencing labor shortages
• Provide a national network of SBA resource partners to assist employers in identifying quality service providers and employment services that test, screen and train those leaving the welfare rolls
• Provide entrepreneurial training and counseling to those currently or formerly on welfare who are interested in starting a business as a means to self-sufficiency
• Improve access to credit for former welfare individuals through the SBA's MicroLoan Program and other capital-access programs

Businesses will be able to hire work-ready individuals through service providers and job training programs that have tested, screened and trained them for employment. Upon hiring a former welfare recipient, businesses will receive additional benefits. Under the Welfare to Work Tax Credit, employers can complete a few simple forms and receive credits up to $3,500 the first year of employment, and up to $5,000 the second year, for individuals hired before May 1, 1999. A number of participating states offer additional tax incentives. They may also offer wage subsidies of up to 50 percent of a former welfare recipient's salary to employers providing the necessary on-the-job training. Contact your State Employment Security Agency for further details, or call the SBA's Answer Desk at 1-800-U-ASK-SBA to request the telephone number of the SESA in your state.

Need More Information/Want To Participate?

For more information about the SBA's role in the Welfare to Work Initiative, or if you are interested in hiring former welfare recipients, you may call the SBA Answer Desk at 1-800-U-ASK-SBA, or the SBA's Office of Entrepreneurial Development in Washington, D.C., at 202-205-6706. You may also contact the regional administrator of your closest SBA regional office:

SBA: www.sba.gov/welfare

Additional Government Sites

wtw.doleta.gov
www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/welfare
www.fta.dot.gov/wtw
www.hud.gov/wlfrefrm.html
www.opm.gov/wtw
www.ssa.gov/welfare/welfare.html
www.usda.gov/fcs/welfare.htm
www.welfaretowork.fed.gov

Related Sites

www.apwa.org
www.naco.org
www.work-web.com/napic
www.ncsl.org/statefed/welfare/work.htm
www.nga.org
www.welfaretowork.org
www.welfareinfo.org
www.uschamber.org

Did you know that -

• more than 50 percent of all new jobs available each year to workers are found in small businesses?
• the majority of employers who have hired individuals from the welfare rolls cite them as hard-working and loyal employees? (Source: The Welfare to Work Partnership, 1998)
• unemployment is at its lowest in 25 years and the demand for new workers is the strongest since 1978? (Source: Manpower, Inc., 1997)
• 27 percent of companies cite a lack of workers as a top challenge to the growth and survival of their business? (Source: Arthur Andersen, Enterprise Group, 1997)

All SBA programs and services are provided to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.

FS-0078 (05/98)