Massachusetts state Senate leaders are proposing a sweeping overhaul of the state’s welfare system that seeks to put more welfare recipients back in the workforce while reducing fraud and waste.

Sponsors of the bill are calling it one of the most comprehensive attempts at welfare reform in the country and the most sweeping in Massachusetts in nearly 20 years.

Sen. Michael Barrett (D-Lexington) is one of the chief architects of the bill. He says the plan starts off with a simple idea.

"Before you even go on welfare, and ideally as a substitute for it, we’re going to ask that you look for a job on your own," Barrett said. "This isn’t punitive. It’s common sense."

The bill would require recipients to look for work before applying for welfare. If they fail, the state would have to find them jobs in the private sector or place them in community college and workforce training programs.

The price tag is about $40 million, with $20 million in new spending. Senators backing the bill say the costs of implementing the reforms would be offset by a reduction in people receiving benefits.

The bill also calls for $5 million to put photos on Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, in an attempt to prevent people from using welfare benefit cards that do not belong to them. And it would allocate $3 million for new caseworkers and fraud investigators.

The proposal comes in the wake of two scathing reports on welfare fraud from the state inspector general’s office and the state auditor. In January, the inspector general found potential fraud in the system costing up to $25 million, and in May, the auditor claimed the state welfare agency paid benefits to people after they were reported dead and to those misusing dead people’s Social Security numbers.

Gov. Deval Patrick has been questioning the accuracy of the audit, saying the auditor had only given the administration 178 cases of benefits allegedly going to dead people. And of those cases, 9 times out of 10, the conclusions were wrong.

"The facts are the facts," Patrick said. "And the question that we have raised and others have raised is whether all of the reports from the auditor are based on facts."

But Patrick says he supports the goals of the Senate bill.