Catch up karma Options

[Kren Cooper]

At our table, we generally have "catch up karma". If a player loses their character, or you get a brand new player at the table, we build the character as per the standard build priority / method for the game or campaign at hand.
But, they then get a wodge of karma allocated to them, increasing their karma pool as appropriate. We normally give enough to get them to 1 less karma pool than the next weakest person at the table.
the idea is obviously to bring someone in with at least a few re-rolls available, and some improved skills so they are somewhat competitive, at least in a small specialist area. But, unlike character creation build points, they have to spend the karma as if they were raising the skills in game.

Does everyone else do this too?
Do you work on another way of bringing people up to a certain level of experience?
Do you make people start at the bottom of the ladder and play cautiously?