Bill targets 'unethical' benefit siphoning in foster care system

(The Center Square) – Orphaned and disabled children in Pennsylvania’s foster care system often qualify for Social Security, disability and veterans benefits.

About 10% of them don't see a dime, according to Amy Harfeld, national policy advocate and senior staff attorney for the Children’s Advocacy Institute.

County officials may apply for benefits on behalf of these children and receive them as designated payees. In many cases, the buck stops there.

“In Pennsylvania this is unfortunately a routine practice,” she told the House Children and Youth Committee last week. “County agencies apply for and intercept federal benefits from eligible children, about 10% of children, and take the funds to offset their own fiscal duties without any regard for the child’s individual circumstances, without regard for the child’s current and future needs, and without ever consulting with them or their attorney.”

Advocates say keeping the funds to cover the cost of care for foster children is not only unethical but illegal at the federal level. Nevertheless, it’s so commonplace that 12 states enacted laws to prevent it.

Pennsylvania wants to be next.

“For our most vulnerable youth, these financial benefits are a way for them to still achieve a life of relative normalcy despite the challenges that they’ve faced from an early age,” said Rep. Rick Krajewski, D-Philadelphia.

Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Camp Hill, joins Krajewski in sponsoring House Bill 2617 , a plan designed to ensure that counties identify and apply for eligible benefits on behalf of foster children and secure them in a savings account. That account would be made available to children when they exit the foster care system or used with the guidance of their guardians to pay for expenses not typically covered by the state.

The bill would further prohibit the commonwealth from using the child’s funds to reimburse itself, ensuring that children aren’t paying for their own care.

“I think that having a little bit of a safety net for those individuals is not out of the bounds of asking of our state government and our local governments to be able to provide for that,” said Delozier.

In Pennsylvania, that job is done at the county level.

Skeptics worry counties would struggle with the additional training and staffing needs such a change would require.

Delozier said "the devil’s in the details,” but insisted that the state’s local agencies are supportive of the change.

Harfeld clarified that federal dollars are also available to assist states in administering federal benefits.

Fifteen thousand kids are in Pennsylvania’s temporary foster system, according to the Department of Human Services . About 2,500 are awaiting adoption, many of whom have special needs.