Work-study programs provide (usually on-campus) jobs for students to earn money while studying. You’re offered a certain maximum amount of money in work-study funds, and then you have to apply for a work-study job (your college’s financial aid office can help you with this) and work the required number of hours to reach the maximum earning amount.
For instance, if you are offered $1500 in work study funds, and you get a work-study job that pay $15/hour, then you need to work 100 hours over the school year, in order to earn the full $1500. However, you are not required to actually earn the full amount. If you want to work fewer hours (or even 0 hours), you can! You’ll just earn less.
The work-study amount is just the maximum you are eligible to get from the government, not a requirement that you must complete.
That’s why we recommend that, in the FAFSA®, you answer “yes” to being considered for work-study. You can still decide later on that you don’t want this sort of job. You’re not committing to anything right now.