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# entitlement reform

phrase (noun phrase: entitlement reform, entitlement reforms)

«entitlement reform» in the English dictionary: in the primary school — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## In the primary school

Source: Mova's pupils' dictionary. Licence: [Elamur Cosmic License](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/LICENSE/). Reviewed: the dictionary the pupils of Mova's primary school read; its examples quote the lessons and public-domain tales. Ships with Mova.

### Meaning

1. (euphemism, political) cutting or limiting government benefits such as pensions, public health care for older people and welfare payments.
2. (literal, formal) any change to the rules about who has a right to government payments, which could in principle make them bigger or smaller.

### In the lessons

Used mainly in US politics and news to make cuts to pensions and welfare sound like tidy improvements; «reform» sounds positive, «cuts» sounds cruel. Official and political register, US mostly; common in speeches, think-tank reports and news analysis. A pupil should ask: will people get more or less money?

### Examples

- The senator promised entitlement reform to balance the budget.
- Critics said entitlement reform was just a polite name for cutting pensions.
- Grandma worried that entitlement reform would shrink her monthly check.
- The report calls for entitlement reform over the next ten years.
- "Entitlement reform? So they're cutting our benefits, then," muttered Dad.
- In the debate, both candidates avoided saying exactly what entitlement reform would mean.
- Our civics teacher asked us to find out what the phrase entitlement reform really hides.
- Entitlement reforms are hard to pass because older people vote a lot.

### Note

Trap: «reform» sounds like «make better», but here it usually means paying out less. «Entitlement» here is not «feeling you deserve things» (as in «he has a sense of entitlement»); it means a legal right to a benefit. Plain words it stands for: benefit cuts, pension cuts. In a maths problem, entitlement reform usually means a payment goes down.