Fast Offering Expense Limit?

[AndrewTree]

Is there a limit on how much Fast Offering funds can be used to pay for expenses for a member in need? During a recent Stake Finance Meeting a comment was made that any expenses over $5,000 needed the approval from the Stake President. However, I am having a hard time finding that wording in the current General Handbook. Searching through this Forum there seems to have been guidance in prior General Handbooks that required Stake President approval for medical expenses over $5,000. Do those limits/guidelines still exist?

If they do can someone point me to the right section in the General Handbook that covers this topic on limits?

Thanks!

[russellhltn]

I don't see anything in the current Handbook, but the stake president can impose additional limits.

There are sections of the Handbook that would be good to review, such as 22.6.3.3 "Sustain Life, Not Lifestyle" and 22.6.3.4 "Provide Commodities before Cash" that may be relevant to your situation.

[davesudweeks]

I recall past discussions in this forum regarding medical expenses and if memory serves, there was additional guidance at one time about seeking approval for those when they reached a certain threshold. Is it possible that is what the commend was about in the stake finance meeting?

[waltbristow]

See https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... g=eng&_r=1

[davesudweeks]

See https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... g=eng&_r=1

I no longer have a calling that grants access to that, but I think it is the info I was remembering...

[ckmcdonald]

If the Ward limit is $5,000 and the limit is $10,000 with Stake President approval....
If a check for say $7,000 needs to be written and the Stake President knows about it and approves, what is the process of actually making the payment? I assume the ward makes the $7,000 disbursement but how is the Stake President's approval formally obtained?

[BrianEdwards]

how is the Stake President's approval formally obtained?

I believe that there's no official place for this approval online, but that the auditors require a "paper trail". We recently had an audit, and included in the review was an expense that needed the Stake President's approval. Email communication between our unit and the Stake President were sufficient to demonstrate Stake President approval. Even better procedure might be to print out electronic communications like this and attach them to the Expense Report

[ckmcdonald]

Excellent advice - we will document. We also learned there isn't anything stopping a ward clerk from writing a FO check for an amount between $5K and $10K so the documentation is very important in a number of ways.

[pineirojuan]

According to the General Handbook,

"22.5.2.1
Medical or Other Health Care
Each Church area has established approval limits for using fast offerings to pay medical, dental, or mental health expenses. These limits are recommended by the Area Presidency. They are approved by the Church Welfare and Self-Reliance Executive Committee. Limits may vary by region or country in an area. When bishops use fast offerings to help pay for medical, dental, or mental health care, they should not exceed these limits without appropriate approval."

Hope it's helpful.

[BrianEdwards]

This discussion has been focused on medical limits (per the body of the OP), although the title of the post doesn't indicate that. I am only aware of the Handbook specifications on medical expenses; other forms of fast offering expenses such as housing seem to not have any specified limits (but definitely are not limitless ). I believe that sometimes people mistakenly take the medical expense limit and apply that limit to other expenses as well, which to my knowledge is not official policy. But perhaps there's clarification on this out there...