public assistance

public assistance (uncountable)

1. (law, public policy) Payment made to disadvantaged persons by government in order to alleviate the burdens of poverty, unemployment, disability, old age, etc.
   • 1820, James Fenimore Cooper, Precaution, ch. 15:

     Suddenly thrown on the world, with a wife and four children, with but the wages of a week for his and their support, they had travelled thus far on the way to a neighboring parish, where he said he had a right to, and must seek, public assistance.

   • 1992 May 25, Thomas Sancton et al., "How to Get America Off the Dole," Time:

     Bush has made public assistance—specifically welfare—a constant target of his campaign rhetoric.

   • 2012 Feb. 2, John Otis, "The Neediest Cases: Long After Southern Storm, Still Looking for New Home," New York Times (retrieved 14 Oct 2012):

     She also signed up for public assistance, and gets $356 a month and $388 in food stamps.

2. government subsidy

   The Tobacco Fund is financed by a deduction from the premiums granted to tobacco producers and it is therefore justified to propose that all public assistance for measures financed under the Fund be provided from the Community own resources in the Fund.

• dole, medicare, pogey, social security, welfare

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