Is it a sin to take welfare when one doesn't strictly need it?

[RWZiller]

As the title suggests – If one were to go on the dole when they don’t strictly need it, would this be a sin? Is this not stealing, at least abstractly?

I’m 20 years old, live with my folks and was recently furloughed (then laid off) from my full-time job due to COVID. I initially applied for unemployment when my employer suggested I should, only expecting to receive less-than-half my ordinary income for a couple weeks to replace at least some of my lost income, but now they’re giving me about $730 a week and my old job isn’t coming back. $700 is 3/4 a month’s salary for me, every single week. It’s hard for me to turn this down, since I’ve never really dealt with this much money before, and it presents opportunities to be charitable I wouldn’t ordinarily consider. I’ve been taking it for a while now, but I can’t fully justify it anymore. I made excuses at first, but now it just seems wrong, even though it’s what most of the folks around me in similar positions seem to be doing. After all, it’s not like I have rent to pay or kids to feed or anything.

Should I stop receiving these payments? Have I, directly or indirectly, stolen from society-at-large by taking from them what I don’t strictly need?

I’d appreciate any opinions or thoughts you can offer. Sorry if I’ve put this in the wrong place.

 

[StudentMI]

Don’t worry about it. You pay taxes. Consider it the money you would have made if taxes weren’t so high.

 

[1ke]

If one were to go on the dole when they don’t strictly need it, would this be a sin? Is this not stealing, at least abstractly?

If one qualifies for some sort of public assistance, one may apply for and receive it. If you aren’t committing fraud, there is nothing immoral about accepting assistance.

Should I stop receiving these payments?

I suggest you save the money.

Have I, directly or indirectly, stolen from society-at-large by taking from them what I don’t strictly need?

No.

Follow the rules of unemployment assistance laws where you live.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

but now they’re giving me about $730 a week and my old job isn’t coming back . $700 is 3/4 a month’s salary for me, every single week.

Are you sure this isn’t a mistake on their part? Have you contacted anyone to make sure?

 

[Edmundus1581]

RWZiller:

but now they’re giving me about $730 a week and my old job isn’t coming back . $700 is 3/4 a month’s salary for me, every single week.

Are you sure this isn’t a mistake on their part? Have you contacted anyone to make sure?

Yes, please check this. Make some effort, but don’t go to any great lengths if on the surface it seems correct. You are clearing your conscience, but also clearing yourself from any blame if there has been a mistake and the system eventually discovers it.

Apart from that, I agree with the others.

It’s not your job to second-guess the welfare system. If you have applied honestly for some assistance and received it, then take it.

Over your lifetime you will probably repay this many times over in taxes. You may also be on the losing end of government mistakes, where you are incorrectly penalised and it’s too much trouble to fight the system and recover the money.

I’m speaking from personal experience, where I regret not applying for some housing assistance which was available to me as a twenty four year old man because I thought “I don’t need it. This is for the genuinely poor people”, and later where I was overtaxed because of an error by my employer, and had to just wear it.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Take it. Keep it. If it’s more money than you need, save the part you don’t need.

Treat it as “found money”. Saving money through frugal living for many years has allowed me to retire with an income that is small beer, but still enough to live on reasonably well and as frugally as I always lived.

You never know what ill fortune is going to befall you, where that money will come in handy, and you might not be able to qualify for benefits then. Again, it’s found money.

 

[RWZiller]

Thanks, all. Your (name removed by moderator)ut is sincerely appreciated.

The payments are so high because of a federal credit due to COVID. I didn’t ask for it, but everyone in my situation’s getting it. I honestly probably wouldn’t have felt the need to ask this if the payments weren’t so high.

I’ll try to look at this as an opportunity God’s giving me to advance in ways I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

Thanks again!

 

[Beryllos]

and my old job isn’t coming back .

I’m frankly surprised at the chorus of agreeable, permissive responses. I wouldn’t go so far as to say what you’re doing is a sin – that’s above my pay grade – but in case you want a dissenting opinion, let me ask you, can you find other work? If your old job isn’t coming back, what is your new job? What else can you do?

I assume that if you earn regular wages, you will lose the welfare payments. I know that it’s hard to resist free money, but earning your wage is more beneficial to you and society.

This being a religious forum, let’s also see what the Bible says about working for a living:

2 Thessalonians 3:7-13
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, we did not eat any one’s bread without paying, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you. It was not because we have not that right, but to give you in our conduct an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living. Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing.

Proverbs 22:29
Do you see those skilled at their work?
They will stand in the presence of kings,
but not in the presence of the obscure.

 

[otjm]

If one qualifies for some sort of public assistance,

The program is called “unemployment insurance” for a reason. It is not welfare. welfare is paid through the general taxation of the State or the Federal government.

Unemployment insurance is a state mandated insurance policy which your employer pays as part of the payroll cost of hiring you, and it is paid on whatever basis (usually monthly) to the state government. If you are laid off, then the insurance policy kicks in; this time the Federal Government provided additional funds, so the amount you would have received is increased. The normal duration is for 6 months, and normally you are required to look for work actively while receiving unemployment insurance payments. So, for example, if an employer called you back to work and you refused, the State would have the right to end payments.

 

[otjm]

can you find other work? If your old job isn’t coming back, what is your new job? What else can you do?

That is a normal requirement which the states impose.

I assume that if you earn regular wages, you will lose the welfare payments. I know that it’s hard to resist free money,

It is not welfare; his employer paid unemployment insurance payments to the state.
It is not free money; it is not that much different than life insurance or health insurance; there is no “free money”.

 

[poche]

Recently a large check arrived from the government. It was like manna from Heaven. If you have any doubts why not give some of it to charity. I am sure that the Saint Vincent de Paul could use some of it to help needy families.

 

[1ke]

The program is called “unemployment insurance” for a reason. It is not welfare. welfare is paid through the general taxation of the State or the Federal government.

I am well aware of what unemployment insurance is in the US.

That wasn’t the question asked. The question was “if one were to go on the dole”. The dole is British unemployment, which IS government assistance.

Maybe the OP is American and using that colloquially, IDK, but not all unemployment programs are employer paid systems.

In the US, “on the dole” typically means welfare assistance benefits.

The OP later clarified he was receiving the extra money provided for Covid unemployment— which is government money not unemployment insurance.

 

[otjm]

That wasn’t the question asked. The question was “if one were to go on the dole”. The dole is British unemployment, which IS government assistance.

The “dole” archaic definition is “one’s allotted share, portion, or destiny” (Miriam Webster) and is used both in the UK and the US loosely, to mean government money paid to an individual.

It is also loosely used, as it can mean welfare money, paid to those with no work and it can mean unemployment money, for those who have been laid off from work.

The OP appears to have had no idea that when they worked, their employer was paying 6% of the first $7,000 of the OP’s salary as part of the Federal inusrance program, and possibly more to the state, as the state collects the federal part but can collect additional money up to a percentage of up to $34,000.

And my recollection decades ago was that I paid one check, to the state, for the entire amount required.

The Federal Government decided that instead of simply funding whatever would be the results between the Federal and the state program, they would increase the payment with an additional $600 per month; it is not paid seperately from the state payment but as a apart of it. In other words, the Federal government increased the unemployment benefit, for a set period of time to end July 31st.

There has been discussion all over the board; reportedly there was one proposal to make it a permanent increase (which didn’t go anywhere); there has been talk of an extension but no law has been passed and signed.

There were objections in Congress the first time the bill was proposed, that it would work as a disincentive to go back to work; there have been a number of economists criticizing both the amount and proposed extensions as the factual result has been people making more on unemployment than they would if they were to take their prior job (or equivalent) back.

The point of my response is that the OP seemed to think they were receiving welfare, or “free” government money. It was money paid for through the Federal and state insurance program, paid for and funded by employers. All states participate in it; benefits vary by the extent of state participation, and it is insurance based.

 

[John_Martin]

This is not a mistake, but a plan by congress, to help restart economic recovery with extra cash flow enticing manufacturers and service providers to increase production to meet the demand of the spending of these added dollars.