If the only purpose of welfare is to keep people from not starving to death, I guess that makes sense. If your goal is to give them the best possible chance of getting a job, then making it easier to social network seems important. So I think the latter makes more economical sense, but I really have no idea and I am not emotionally invested in this issue. I think if you want to get people to stop abusing welfare you should probably start by looking at income tax. If a 40h minimum wage job barely keeps you from starving while the government takes 50+% of your income all things considered, I don't blame anyone for gaming the system.