I liked holli's post but I just didn't like the format of your input file. If you want structure that both a program and a human can work with, you need XML:

Your data file, transformed a bit: 

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<BASENODE>
<HEAD name="Benefits">
  <Desc> your benefits</Desc>
  <Subcategories>
    <category name="Employee Recognition">
      <Url> http://blah.com/recognition/index.html</Url>
      <topics>
        <topic name="Employee Service Awards">
          <Url> http://blah.com/recognition/employee_service.html</Url
+>
        </topic>
        <topic name="General Recognition and Performance-based Awards"
+>
            <Url> http://blah.com/recognition/awards.html</Url>
        </topic>
      </topics> 
     </category>   
    <category name="Equity Plans">
      <Url> Overridden Regional Content URL</Url>
      <topics>
        <topic name="Incentive Plan">
          <Url> http://blah.com/equity_plans/incentive/override.html</
+Url>
        </topic>
      </topics>
    </category>
  </Subcategories>
  <Url> http://blah.com/index.html</Url>
</HEAD>
<HEAD name="Compensation">
  <Subcategories />
  <Url> http://blah.com/comp/index.html</Url>
</HEAD>
<HEAD name="Corporate Policies">
  <Subcategories />
  <Url> http://blah.com/corp_policies/index.html</Url>
</HEAD>
<HEAD name="Early Retirement">
  <Subcategories />
  <Url> http://blah.com/ero/index.html</Url>
</HEAD>
</BASENODE>

[download]

Code using XML::Simple: 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

local $/;
open(H,'subcontent2.xml') or die $!;
my $wholefile =<H>;
close(H);

my $xmlref = XMLin($wholefile, ForceArray=>['topic']);
foreach(keys %{$xmlref->{'HEAD'}}){
    if (!$xmlref->{HEAD}->{$_}->{Subcategories}->{category}){
    print qq|GENERAL URL($_): | . $xmlref->{HEAD}->{$_}->{Url} . qq|\n
+|;
    }
    else
    {
    foreach my $cat($xmlref->{HEAD}->{$_}->{Subcategories}->{category}
+){
        for (keys %$cat){
                    print qq|CATEGORY URL($_): | .  $cat->{$_}->{Url} 
+. qq|\n|;
                    foreach my $topics ( values %{$cat->{$_}->{topics}
+}){
            foreach(keys %{$topics}){
                print qq|TOPIC URL($_): | . $topics->{$_}->{Url} . qq|
+\n|;
                }

                     }
             }
        }
    }
}
#print Dumper $xmlref;

1;

[download]

Spits out: 

perl subcontent.pl
GENERAL URL(Corporate Policies):  http://blah.com/corp_policies/index.
+html
GENERAL URL(Compensation):  http://blah.com/comp/index.html
GENERAL URL(Early Retirement):  http://blah.com/ero/index.html
CATEGORY URL(Employee Recognition):  http://blah.com/recognition/index
+.html
TOPIC URL(Employee Service Awards):  http://blah.com/recognition/emplo
+yee_service.html
TOPIC URL(General Recognition and Performance-based Awards):  http://b
+lah.com/recognition/awards.html
CATEGORY URL(Equity Plans):  Overridden Regional Content URL
TOPIC URL(Incentive Plan):  http://blah.com/equity_plans/incentive/ove
+rride.html

[download]

What's my point? By using XML (possibly with a schema or a DTD) you will notice whether or not your nested data is well-formed. A tabbed text file as a data source is likely to cause you trouble down the road.

Celebrate Intellectual Diversity

In reply to Re: Generating HTML from a Hashref of Hashrefs by InfiniteSilence
in thread Generating HTML from a Hashref of Hashrefs by rje

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