In terms of Dina D’malchusa, as long as one meets the financial requirements for food stamps (legitimately meets them, without under-reporting and other common tricks of the MOFES trade), one is, I suppose, legally entitled to recieve and use food stamps.
Whether one – especially a kollel avreich who is supposedly spending long days immersed in God’s Word – wants to conduct their life based solely on whether or not they are violating the strict letter of the secular law is another question entirely. Even if one is ENTITLED to recieve food stamps, perhaps it is important for each person to conduct a cheshbon hanefesh and decide whether this is an entitelment and right that they should be excercising. We all have the right to burn the U.S. flag, protest same-sex marriage in extreme ways (think Westboro Baptist Church), and to drive 5 mph down a crowded street with many cars stuck behind us. That does not mean we need to do it, or that we should do it. As Jews, we should to the extent possible (depending on our individual situations) strive for more. We shouldn’t be content to meet the bare minimum requirements of good members of society; we should strive to be the finest examples of human beings that we can be. Perhaps that means we shouldn’t always take everything we are “entitled” to. I don’t know. But I think it behooves everyone considering MOFES options to do a real cheshbon hanefesh to determine whether in their circumstances, and considering the choices they have made about how to live their lives, taking what your “entitled” to is really the right thing to do.
As an aside, early on, my wife and I were in a position as to be entitled to food stamps and WIC. We decided not to take them because by cutting our budget in other places, we could manage. We did, however, take State-provided medical insurance for our newborn child (not for ourselves, we were covered with private insurance already) for 8 months because the expense of private insurance for her – and the dangers of having no insurance – were too much to bear otherwise. 8 months later, as soon as we could place her on private insurance that we paid for ourselves, we took her off the State-provided insurance. Again, each must make their own cheshbon, I think.