Is it permissible to establish a charitable society to employ needy Muslims using zakat funds?

The basic principle is that zakat should be disbursed to the eight categories mentioned in the verse from Surat At-Tawbah: "Zakat expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakat] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler." Disbursing it for charitable projects, such as establishing companies for the unemployed or facilitating their integration into the workforce, goes against this principle and does not entail ownership of the zakat by its rightful recipients. Some scholars have deemed it impermissible to spend zakat on charitable projects because it contradicts the evidence and the practice of earlier scholars. It is not permissible to delay zakat beyond its due time or to spend any portion of it on general charitable projects.