Policy on welfare covering a refundable deposit

[daveywest]

I'm looking for a source document I've previously seen concerning fast offering assistance paying for a utilities deposit that may eventually be refundable to the member.

I thought it was in Handbook 1, but I can't find that policy in the current online version. The general gist of the policy was to pay other expenses so a member can pay the deposit from their own funds.

Does anyone know where this policy is found?

[lajackson]

The general gist of the policy was to pay other expenses so a member can pay the deposit from their own funds.

Handbook 1:5.2.3 provides a bishop the principles and guidelines for rendering assistance. Among other things, it instructs the bishop to provide commodities before cash. This will allow a member to use their own money to pay other obligations, bills, the rent deposit, etc.

This is probably the section of the Handbook are seeking.

[daveywest]

Thanks lajackson.

I'd found that reference in HB1. I'm looking for a very specific statement I remember seeing after an auditor dinged a ward a few years ago after the Bishop paid a deposit. I'm wondering if the phrasing was altered in a recent edition of Handbook 1, and we are enforcing a policy in our stake that is no longer in effect.

[russellhltn]

I'm wondering if the phrasing was altered in a recent edition of Handbook 1, and we are enforcing a policy in our stake that is no longer in effect.

You may want to located a printed copy of Handbook 1 to see if it was in the original 2010 Handbook. The on-line Handbook does get updated.

[lajackson]

I'm wondering if the phrasing was altered in a recent edition of Handbook 1, and we are enforcing a policy in our stake that is no longer in effect.

I do not believe the Handbook changed, but I do not have one handy to check. I think it more likely that you are remembering some training that was given, or some instruction from the stake president to the bishops on how to administer fast offering funds.

Or, I suppose an excited auditor might have equated the deposit with a budget cash advance, but I think that is a long shot, and our auditors would not have been allowed to do that.