Although the word
workfare originated in the US, it seems to be used more often in the UK - and even more often in Singapore. Basically it refers to government schemes that impose conditions on welfare recipients, such as performing unpaid or low paid work, or undertaking job training. Wikipedia has articles on
Workfare and
Workfare in the United KingdomWe have such a scheme in Australia but as far as I know it hasn't been called
workfare here. It's known as "mutual obligation" or "work for the dole".
An alternative scheme would be to make politicians' salaries conditional on them doing their job properly. I don't think this one has been tried yet.
I agree the word isn't really common. It has actually been available as a seed word for 7-by-many puzzles but hasn't been used except in a few player-created puzzles in "Your Puzzles". From now on it will be treated as rare and won't be used as a puzzle seed word.