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Committee urged to codify DCF policy protecting Social Security benefits for foster youth
Summary
Advocates, legal groups and young people testified in support of House 227/Senate 105, which would require the Department of Children and Families to conserve federal benefits for children and young adults in foster care and provide transparency and financial education.
House and Senate sponsors and more than a dozen advocates told the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities that they support legislation to prevent the Department of Children and Families from diverting Social Security and related federal benefits paid on behalf of children in foster care.
Kat Kerian, public policy and advocacy manager at Hopewell, told the committee: "It is paramount that these changes are codified into law." She said DCF’s 2024 practice change to conserve benefits and open ABLE accounts is welcome but needs statutory protection to prevent future reversals.
Advocates described the prior practice — which they said had resulted in federal survivor and disability benefits being routed to the Commonwealth rather than preserved for the child — and…
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