Paying Expenses of Ward Members

Provide Temporary Assistance for Essential Needs (Handbook 22.4.2)
The goal of Church assistance is to temporarily meet basic needs while members strive to become self-reliant. Fast-offering assistance is generally used to pay for essential items, such as food and clothing. However, it may also be used to pay for housing or utilities. It may also be used to pay for personal services such as counseling, medical care, or vocational training.

Church assistance is meant to sustain life—not to maintain lifestyle. Members may need support and empathy as they work to reduce or eliminate expenses to better provide for their own needs.

Bishops should exercise good judgment and seek spiritual direction when considering the amount and duration of the assistance given. They should be compassionate and generous while not creating dependence.

Guidelines for the bishop in using fast offerings to administer assistance are outlined below:

1. Personally approve all fast-offering expenditures.
2. When possible, the bishop provides members with commodities or services instead of giving them money or paying their bills. Members can then use their own money to pay other obligations. Where bishops’ storehouses are not available, fast offerings may be used to buy essential commodities. (Handbook 22.6.3.4) (Also see “Principles and Guidelines for Rendering Assistance” in 22.6.3, General Handbook).
3. When possible, make payments to providers of goods and services rather than to the person being assisted or to other individuals. (Handbook 22.6.4.5)
4. Do not loan fast offerings to members. Members are not required to repay welfare assistance they receive from the Church. Encourage members to contribute to the fast-offering fund when they are again able to do so. (Handbook 22.6.4.5)
5. Do not use fast offerings to pay members’ consumer debt or obligations incurred in business failures or speculative ventures. (Handbook 22.6.4.5)
6. Ensure that any fast-offering assistance to the bishop or his immediate family members is first approved in writing by the stake president (see 22.5.2, General Handbook) and complies with the following instructions. (Handbook 22.6.4.5)
7. When giving fast-offering assistance via check, electronic fund transfer (EFT), or a payment approval form), ensure that:
   
   • Two authorized approvers always sign the check or form or approve the EFT.
   • The persons approving the payment are not related to either the payee or the person being assisted.
   • Neither the payee nor the person being assisted signs the check or form or approves the EFT. (Handbook 22.6.4.5)