Ethical Delimma

*Instructions and template included as an attachment. APA 7th edition required, no A1, biblical and NASW Code of Ethics reference required and textbook

Ethical Dilemma #2

You are a social worker at a Human Services agency in your local area. The population you

primarily work with are those who are seeking qualifications for the Energy Assistance Program

(EAP). Your responsibilities are to determine whether individuals applying for this program

meet the requirements and to audit renewing applications for qualification. You have recently

begun working with Sam, a single parent of two little boys (aged four and nine) who works full-

time and is struggling to provide for their family. Sam and their family live in a severely

impoverished area of town that you are familiar with. There is high gang activity, and most

individuals who cannot escape the area often resort to desperate means to survive. After a few

months, Sam was able to buy a new home in another district in the area with the assistance of

EAP. Their new location would not have been your first choice since it still lacks some comforts;

however, the crime index is significantly lower, and the education system is better for their

children.

A year has now passed, and the agency is at the beginning of its fiscal year. Sam requests to meet

with you in person to update you on how life is going. They tell you things have improved

significantly, and their children are thriving in school. They also tell you about the recent

birthday of their eldest son and the gift they got him. Their son has always desired to play

football, so Sam decided to surprise him with all the equipment he will need to play this year.

Football equipment is quite expensive (let alone the registration fee to participate in a league), so

you inquire how long it took to save up to buy it. They tell you, Well, I have been doing small-

end jobs for local churches by cleaning the property, and they pay me a small amount for my

help. This allows me to earn an extra $400/month to make ends meet with my mortgage and pay

for my night classes for the degree I am trying to get. Eventually, I should be able to get a

higher-paying job once I graduate! You congratulate Sam on their upcoming accomplishments

but know that new income can influence the programs qualification, so later that week, you

decide to review their most recent assistance renewal application. You pull up their application

and notice that the new income they disclosed is not listed on the application.

You come to suspect that Sam may have had this income since the beginning of their services,

which may have been how they were able to move locations and afford night classes. After doing

the math, you realize that if Sam were to report this income, it would make them ineligible to

receive assistance from this program. This could also prevent them from meeting the

requirements of other welfare assistance programs as well (SNAP, TANF, Housing Assistance,

etc.). Without this assistance, you are unsure if Sam will be able to sufficiently provide for their

family since the cost of living is significantly higher where they now live compared to where

they were previously living. You also deduce that if Sam stopped bringing in the extra income,

this would limit their capabilities of getting above the poverty line