be on benefit BrE
be on welfare AmE

About 7 percent of the general population is on welfare.

Many are families on welfare who live here for only a few months.

Half the women now on welfare had their first baby before they were 18.

She is a single mother and was once on welfare.

I don't want to stay on welfare all my life.

By age 24, she was a single mother on welfare with two children.

Some people on welfare might not want to work with children, they say.

They have been on welfare for the last 12 years.

But I don't know how people can just live on welfare.

She lives on welfare with all four of her children.