From National Public Radio:
Child welfare officials in New York City say they will stop collecting all of the Social Security checks from children in foster care and using that money to cover the costs of their care, altering a practice criticized by advocates for children. And those advocates say they hope New York's action becomes a model for agencies across the country.
Jess Dannhauser, commissioner of the Administration for Children's Services, New York City's child protection agency, says soon the Social Security money will be placed in savings accounts that children can access when they leave foster care–either when they return to family, are adopted or age-out of foster care between ages 18 and 24. ...
The money is supposed to be used for the housing, food, clothing, etc for the children, whether in foster care or not. If any is left over, it should be saved for future needs.
ReplyDeleteIn the article it mentions saving up to $2,000.00 for children who get SSI, but when a child gets foster care payments, they are no longer entitled to SSI. After 12 months of non-payment's the benefits would terminate anyway.
ReplyDeleteHowever, sounds like a step in the right direction for the other types of benefits.
Children in foster care are entitled to SSI if they are disabled. Benefits are not suspened or terminated because they are in foster care
ReplyDeleteGood. This is like GTA Grant Theft Advocacy.
ReplyDelete@12:32 If the foster care is paid out of federal funds, it is considered IBON and affects SSI dollar for dollar. And it is often more than SSI payments which reduces SSI to zero. And after 12 months of being ineligible for SSI due to excess income from unearned income, SSI entitlement is terminated. So foster care funds can terminate SSI eligibility.
ReplyDeletehttps://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0500830170
Kind of odd. If the child was living with the parent or the grandparent or the aunt, then that person could use the Social Security funds for the child's food, clothing and shelter. But if the child is in foster care, none of the Social Security can be used for food, clothing or shelter.
That is a great deal for children in foster care who are getting either an auxiliary or survivor benefit, but the rest of the foster kids will start adult life with zero dollars. Someone is going to find that unfair.