The French party advanced welfare (4)
I believe the answer is:
dole
'the french party advanced welfare' is the definition.
'dole' can be an answer for 'welfare' (dole is a kind of welfare). I'm not sure about the 'the french party advanced' bit.
'party advanced welfare' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'advanced welfare' becomes 'le' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'do'+'le'='DOLE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dole that I've seen before include "Unemployment pay" , "Informal word for unemployment assistance" , "State benefit (colloq.)" , "Dish (out sparingly)" , "Kansas senator and 1996 presidential candidate, Bob" .)