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workfare

workfare

6 5.1
A government program that requires people to work to get welfare benefits
  • noun
  • /ˈwɜrkˌfɛr/
  • Specialized
: trabajo a cambio de asistencia
  • In order to receive welfare benefits, participants must engage in activities as part of the workfare program.
  • Schumpeterian workfare
  • workfare state

Examples

  • Economists and business faculty could study "workfare" issues—particularly at the community college level where many welfare students attempt to renew a career.

    Academic text (1997)
  • So the basic gist of the Clinton welfare reforms were we're going to use sort of a more workfare approach than a pure welfare cash transfer approach.

  • Nor is this to suggest that mandatory workfare is the solution.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Interesting question: why is WPA good, and workfare bad?

    Blog text (31)
  • Ronald Reagan's greatest domestic legacy, despite his tax cuts, was not to reduce government; it was to start changing welfare into workfare.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Investments in human capital (education, retraining), workfare schemes, and similar measures could be either.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Recent measures such as workfare or reformed schools are attempts to stimulate the poor, not to curb the rich.

    Academic text (1991)
  • At the same time, the workfare state offers only a minimum of protection for people's existential needs; otherwise, they are handed over to private charitable organizations (Jones, 2001).

    Academic text (2018)
  • Why is it reasonable, fair, or wise to exempt the remaining 39,000 welfare households from workfare participation just because an extra 120 have left the rolls?

    Blog text (2)
  • The new makeshift workfare scheme, Programa Intensivo en Mano de Obra, Labor Intensive Program, PIMO, paid thirty-six dollars a month after discounting social security contributions.

    Academic text (1992)

Antonyms

1 6.8

A time without a job or paid work

How Compulsory

slave labour
  • NSFW
26 4.4
workfare
  • Specialized
6 5.1

Surface Forms

workfare singular
workfares plural

Morphology

workfare = work + fare (semi-transparent) = work + fare

While 'work' and 'fare' are clear, the specific meaning of a government program is not directly derivable.

Etymology

Workfare joins work and welfare, where welfare means 'help from the government' and work means 'doing a job'. So workfare is welfare you get only if you do some work, which is why it describes programs that require people to work to receive benefits.