If help from the government is means-tested, you do not get the money just because you are old, sick, or out of work. First, officials look at your means — a rather formal word for the money you live on, your savings, sometimes what you own — and they decide whether you are poor enough to need the help. People with more are turned away, or given less. You will hear it a lot in British news: means-tested benefits. The opposite idea is money that goes to everyone in a group, with no look at their pockets. Though actually, the phrase sounds like a school test, and students often wait for a score — but nobody is marking your answers. They are weighing what you have. In Taiwan the close habit is the check for 低收入戶.