Because the alternative is telling people how to spend it, which will be a less efficient use of that money. We already see this with food stamps and housing vouchers. There are many cases where someone has food stamps, but doesn't have trouble buying food, and so has left over food stamps at the end of the month. Yet they can't afford housing, because you can't pay rent with food stamps.
When I was a kid, my mom's poor friends would buy us groceries with their surplus food stamps, and my mom would pay them back in cash so they could actually pay their bills.
Does anybody know if this is still possible/prevalent these days with EBT/Link cards?
