I would begin with requiring a high school diploma/GED for any recipient not a drooling vegetable; and a valid state issued identification card and birth certificate. If you don't have those, you're not getting a job ever, or at least one with any career trajectory in today's world.
I would require any college or university to limit tuition charged to poor students to something far more reasonable in order for any student there to receive any federal aid. I would fund and aggressively pursue/require continuing education for welfare recipients not already drawing social security or SSDI via certificate programs available at night on weekends using existing public school buildings that would include a mastery of basic computing skills, a better understanding of finance, and any other life skills that the local or state government deemed appropriate for that pool of recipients or the recipients themselves desired to pursue such as How To classes in bookkeeping, engine repair, how to start a business, etc, as a Community College for Dummies type program.
I would end the one size fits all mentality by allowing state and local government greater flexibility to experiment within benefits programs to find solutions appropriate to the poor in that area which need not be uniform across all their local poor. For some it might be workfare, for others it might be drug-testing/treatment, etc.