Does budgeting logic hold for welfare recipients with variable income from odd jobs?

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Budgeting logic does not hold well for welfare recipients with variable income from odd jobs.

Budgeting is far less workable when income changes from month to month, especially for people doing odd jobs such as collecting cans and boxes for recycling. A salaried worker receives a fixed monthly pay cheque, but a person with irregular earnings cannot reliably predict how much money will come in, which makes standard budgeting advice much less useful.
JKM Pay limits half of the allowance to approved uses

JKM Pay was described as a cashless system for welfare recipients, with use restricted to JKM-approved shops and approved items. Only 50 per cent of welfare payments would be credited to JKM Pay, so half of the allowance would still be tied to those limits.
Irregular earnings make monthly planning uncertain

The problem with budgeting logic is that it assumes a steady flow of money. For someone earning from odd jobs, monthly income can rise or fall without warning, unlike a fixed salary that arrives at the same time and in the same amount each month.
Poor households have fewer spending options than middle-class households

The comparison with a middle-class phone bill shows how much flexibility matters. A middle-class person can switch to a cheaper plan, drop Netflix, or move to a RM5 Viu subscription, but poorer households often do not have that same range of cost-cutting choices.
The position is to give cash directly instead of controlling spending

The stated view is that poor people should simply be given money, rather than having their spending tightly controlled. The argument frames poverty as a systemic failure and says welfare policy should stop telling poor people how to spend their money.

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Does budgeting logic hold for welfare recipients with variable income from odd jobs?

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