welfariat
n. The class of people whose income is based solely on receiving welfare payments.
Etymology
Examples
1992
Travelling in Africa, as this campaign began, I saw the depths of human suffering in Mozambique. It left me cool to lamentations here about underfunding of our National Health Service or the shortcomings of our colossal welfariat.
—W. F. Deedes, “An opportunity today which may not come again,” The Daily Telegraph, April 09, 1992
1985 (earliest)
The one-parent family, or to be more precise fatherless children, often illegitimate children born into the welfariat are a major source of inner-city blight.
—Sir Alfred Sherman, “Blind spots in the SDP's vision,” The Guardian, November 11, 1985
Filed Under
Some Related Words