n. The class of people whose income is based solely on receiving welfare payments.
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.
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.