transfer payment

noun

1

: a public expenditure made for a purpose (such as unemployment compensation) other than procuring goods or services

—usually used in plural

2

transfer payments plural : money (such as welfare payments) that is received by individuals and that is neither compensation for goods or services currently supplied nor income from investments

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The credit was born as a $500 per-child benefit for middle-income families, but has since degenerated into one more cash transfer payment. —The Editorial Board, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2022

But scammers are skilled at persuading job seekers to move their conversations to phone calls, conduct interviews over Skype or transfer payments using peer-to-peer cash transfer apps instead of Upwork's payment processing system. —NBC News, 20 Mar. 2020

In fact, whether or not other OECD nations count their public health services as a transfer payment would have only a small impact on their income distributions since the benefits are supposedly distributed equally to everyone. —WSJ, 28 Aug. 2018

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans more than tripled from 1979 to 2016, before taxes and government transfer payments are taken into account. —Jim Tankersley, New York Times, 5 Dec. 2019

For example, some income that people receive is in the form of wages and salaries, and some is in the form of government transfer payments. —Joshua R. Hendrickson, National Review, 20 Nov. 2019

After the price hikes had taken effect, the cash-transfer payments which go to the poorest 20% of the population were increased; but by then the damage had been done. —The Economist, 17 Oct. 2019

Low-income Americans paid roughly 25%, the authors say, although this excludes transfer payments made to the very poorest households: a misleading omission, some critics reckon. —The Economist, 24 Oct. 2019

One point of contention is how transfer payments—for example earned income tax credit or Social Security payments—are calculated. —Allison Schrager, Quartz, 12 Oct. 2019

See More

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1945, in the meaning defined at sense 1