Welfare Recipients See Income in the Cards

NEW YORK —  The cards predict you may soon leave the welfare rolls and find gainful employment--at least if you live in New York.

For the last nine months, New York City welfare recipients have been hired to dispense advice and otherwise minister to people calling a $4.99-a-minute psychic hotline.

At least 15 women who had been on welfare have been hired by a company called Psychic Network to work at home as telephone clairvoyants, at a salary of $10 an hour plus bonuses, the city’s welfare department said.

A flier put out by Business Link, a division of the city’s Human Resources Administration, states that anyone on public assistance with a high school degree who has a “caring and compassionate personality” and can “read, write and speak English” can apply for the job.

The otherworldly aspect of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s program, set up in 1995 to help employ out-of-work mothers who must stay home because they have young children, came to light in a report by the New York Times.

And what if you’re not psychic? Not to worry. Psychic Network will train you to read Tarot cards, predict the future or divine the course of the caller’s love life.

When asked about the report, a welfare department spokesman replied only: “We are interfacing with City Hall on this.”