Is a family that relies on the wife's work to cover its monthly expenses after the husband's income became insufficient for these expenses, and succeeded in improving its standard of living through this work, considered among the poor or needy who are eligible for zakat or sadaqah?

Zakat on wealth is only to be disbursed to the categories specified in the verse from Surat At-Tawbah: "Indeed, [prescribed] charitable donations are only to be given to the poor and the needy, and to those who work on [collecting] them, and to those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to [free] captives, and to those in debt, and for the cause of Allah, and to the wayfarer."

If a man's income is insufficient for his needs and those he supports, he is to be given from zakat what suffices him, and his wife's employment does not preclude this. Similarly, he is given to repay his debt if he finds no means of repayment and the cause of the debt was permissible. As for voluntary charity, its scope is broad.