welfare trap

English

WOTD – 9 November 2015

Pronunciation

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Noun

welfare trap (plural welfare traps)

1. (chiefly US) A situation where the welfare system discourages people who receive government public assistance payments from entering low-paid work because such work does not produce a significant income increase.
   • 1982 August 23, Robert Pear, “Getting tougher on work rules for food stamps”, in New York Times, retrieved 9 November 2015:

     Mr. Hayakawa said there was "a class of able-bodied persons who would rather collect public assistance than take jobs". . . . Cutting off food stamp benefits to these people, he said, would remove a disincentive to work, "close off one of the doors into the welfare trap."

Synonyms

• (chiefly UK) unemployment trap

Related terms

• inactivity trap

Translations

situation

• Danish: arbejdsløshedsfælde c
• Dutch: werkloosheidsval (nl) m
• Finnish: kannustinloukku (fi)
• French: trappe à inactivité f
• German: Arbeitslosigkeitsfalle f
• Hebrew: מלכודת הרווחה
• Italian: trappola della disoccupazione f
• Portuguese: armadilha do desemprego f
• Spanish: trampa del desempleo f
• Swedish: arbetslöshetsfälla c

Further reading

• welfare trap on Wikipedia.Wikipedia