Tithing off disability check

[jtav]

I draw money off my dad’s disability check. It’s my sole income, but because I live with my parents rent-free, I have some disposable income after paying for food, internet access etc… Should I tithe off of the check? My mom is terrified that I will lose my benefits if the government finds out and I do desperately need the check and associated health insurance. My parents have been keeping the balance of my check as a reserve against some catastrophic need or great expense I might incur, with the understanding I have only to ask. I’d be absolutely destitute within a month or two without Medicaid (not hyperbole), but it doesn’t seem right not to support the Church and give alms while I can.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

Catholics are not expected to tithe any particular percentage of their income. The question is how much you can afford to give. If you have disposable income, you should give something to the Church.

 

[Mary_Ellen]

I don’t know what country you live in but in the US you can do what you like with your disability monies.

As a Catholic you are not required to tithe but, according the fifth Precept of the Church, each of us is required to help provide for the needs of the Church. The fifth precept means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.

When looking at the modifier “according to his own ability” you may want to take into consideration the story of the Widow’s Mite. In the story, a widow donates two small coins, while wealthy people donate much more. Jesus explains to his disciples that the small sacrifices of the poor mean more to God than the extravagant, but proportionately lesser, donations of the rich.

 

[Sarcelle]

I draw money off my dad’s disability check. It’s my sole income, but because I live with my parents rent-free, I have some disposable income after paying for food, internet access etc… Should I tithe off of the check? My mom is terrified that I will lose my benefits if the government finds out and I do desperately need the check and associated health insurance. My parents have been keeping the balance of my check as a reserve against some catastrophic need or great expense I might incur, with the understanding I have only to ask. I’d be absolutely destitute within a month or two without Medicaid (not hyperbole), but it doesn’t seem right not to support the Church and give alms while I can.

You can contribute time or talent instead of money.

I know people who have very limited income and cannot contribute monetarily but they are active as volunteers.

You can start with the prayer ministry if your church has it.

 

[Mintaka]

Technically, your disability check is a form of alms.

(Okay, so it’s government alms, but still.)

People receiving alms don’t usually tithe their alms. You can, but it’s going above and beyond. Like heroic beggar saints, that sort of thing.

OTOH, it is traditional for people who receive alms to pray for those who give it to them (in your case, all the taxpayers in your country or state/province).

Giving the Church a tithe through prayer would also be a good thing. God values the prayers of the poor and the sick very highly.

So if it will give your parents more peace of mind, and if it’s not required of you, I think you would be prudent not to tithe money. But that’s up to you to decide. And I applaud your generous heart.

 

[Rosebud77]

You can contribute time or talent instead of money.

I know people who have very limited income and cannot contribute monetarily but they are active as volunteers.

You can start with the prayer ministry if your church has it.

It is up to you entirely. I have been decades on disability and now a pension and knowing near poverty has made me aware of how little we need to live on. So I choose to give all I do not absolutely need to my family who work with those who have nothing. Living simply and frugally is what I love to do. That is my choice.

 

[Rosebud77]

PS. there is a verse in one of Paul;s epistles where he advises not tithing but giving what you can. Great wisdom in that .

 

[jtav]

It has turned out to be a moot point. I checked again, and apparently Medicaid doesn’t allow you to give away money, even to the Church or charity. I’m more than a little angry. I need the Medicaid desperately because my condition is expensive, but I also feel like I should be able to do something to help others instead of spending the money on entertainment items I don’t need. (The check wouldn’t actually be enough to live off of and my parents have refused multiple attempts for me to take on a few bills, so it’s essentially a glorified allowance).

 

[Rosebud77]

It has turned out to be a moot point. I checked again, and apparently Medicaid doesn’t allow you to give away money, even to the Church or charity. I’m more than a little angry. I need the Medicaid desperately because my condition is expensive, but I also feel like I should be able to do something to help others instead of spending the money on entertainment items I don’t need. (The check wouldn’t actually be enough to live off of and my parents have refused multiple attempts for me to take on a few bills, so it’s essentially a glorified allowance).

Does not allow? How would it know? No one knows my spending of my pension.

And as some have said, give your time and talents… Sometimes if someone gives me money I do not need and say to spend it on myself,i tell them I iwill have lunch with Jesus and then give it to feed the needy.

 

[animalis]

If you have SSI from Social Security, you can only hold 2000 dollars in assets (excluding car or house). If you cross that limit you have to give it away.

 

[jtav]

Does not allow? How would it know? No one knows my spending of my pension.

And as some have said, give your time and talents… Sometimes if someone gives me money I do not need and say to spend it on myself,i tell them I iwill have lunch with Jesus and then give it to feed the needy.

Medicaid forbids me from using my money on anything other than myself, or at least that’s my understanding. Mom fills out the form, but there’s a question asking if I gave money away. I’m going to ask my caseworker.

 

[Rosebud77]

Medicaid forbids me from using my money on anything other than myself, or at least that’s my understanding. Mom fills out the form, but there’s a question asking if I gave money away. I’m going to ask my caseworker.

A different system over here of course . I get free medical care because my income (pensioner) is below a certain level. Period. Oh and I think now my age alone qualifies me f . Same with other payments thankfully.

Maybe they mean a regular covenanting donation?

 

[redbaron162]

Medicaid forbids me from using my money on anything other than myself, or at least that’s my understanding. Mom fills out the form, but there’s a question asking if I gave money away. I’m going to ask my caseworker.

I wouldn’t worry to much about it. Since you are given a disability check for your condition I would use it towards that and like the other said, use your time and talents to contribute to the Church instead.

I have no idea what your condition is (nor is it any of my business) but lets say you were a paraplegic. You could still volunteer to work a cash register at a St. Vincent de Paul store or make rosaries for your parish or whatever. I am sure you could find something regardless of your condition, even if its from home.

Also like others said I would use your time also to pray for others (as one person said since the people are in a since supporting you, use the time to pray for the American people (we need it)). Many parish’s have a 24 adoration chapel.

Again I have no idea what your condition is but you may also want to discern a religious vocation. Hermann of Reichenau was a Benedictin Monk.

Hermann was a son of the earl of Altshausen. He was crippled by a paralytic disease from early childhood. He was born July 18, 1013 with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy and is said to have had spina bifida.[3] Based on the evidence, however, more recent scholarship indicates Hermann possibly had either amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal muscular atrophy.[4][5] As a result, he had great difficulty moving and could hardly speak. At seven, he was placed in a Benedictine monastery by his parents who could no longer look after him. He grew up in the monastery, learning from the monks and developing a keen interest in both theology and the world around him.
He spent most of his life in the Abbey of Reichenau, an island on Lake Constance. Hermann contributed to all four arts of the quadrivium. He was renowned as a musical composer (among his surviving works are officia for St. Afra and St. Wolfgang). He also wrote a treatise on the science of music, several works on geometry and arithmetics and astronomical treatises (including instructions for the construction of an astrolabe, at the time a very novel device in Western Europe). As a historian, he wrote a detailed chronicle from the birth of Christ to his own present day, ordering them after the reckoning of the Christian era. One of his disciples Berthold of Reichenau continued it.

At twenty, Hermann was professed as a Benedictine monk, spending the rest of his life in a monastery.[6] He was literate in several languages, including Arabic, Greek and Latin and wrote about mathematics, astronomy and Christianity.[7] He built musical and astronomical instruments and was also a famed religious poet. When he went blind in later life, he began writing hymns, the best known of which is Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen).

Herman died in a monastery on September 24, 1054, aged 40. The Roman Catholic Church beatified him in 1863.

It was he, a disabled boy who hardly speak or move due to his condition, who composed the Salve Regina prayer (Hail Holy Queen we pray at the end of every rosary). What a legacy!