Word.ws English Dictionary

benefit cliff

benefit cliff is the alternative form of benefits cliff.

Meaning of benefits cliff

Noun

benefits cliff (plural benefits cliffs)

  1. A situation that occurs when a small increase in wages results in a sudden decrease in net income, due to suddenly becoming ineligible for benefits.
    • There is this issue of the benefits cliffs, where some programs are designed so just a very marginal increase in earnings can result in a loss of a very important benefit.2014 July 20, Jana Kasperkevic, “The benefits cliff: when minimum wage increases backfire on the people in need”, in The Guardian

Forms of benefit cliff

pluralbenefit cliffs

Questions about benefit cliff

What is benefit cliff the alternative form of?
Benefit cliff is the alternative form of benefits cliff.

Words near benefit cliff in the dictionary

  1. Benefiel
  2. Benefield
  3. Benefields
  4. Benefiels
  5. benefit
  6. benefit cliff
  7. benefit cliffs
  8. benefit club
  9. benefit clubs
  10. benefit corporation
  11. benefit corporations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: benefit cliff (page history and authors); benefits cliff (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “benefit cliff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/benefit_cliff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.