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Advocates urge preserving Social Security and veterans benefits for foster children; committee hears implementation report
Summary
Witnesses told the Children and Family Law Committee that preserving federal benefits for children in state custody — and conserving them for the child’s future — can reduce homelessness and improve post‑care outcomes. DCYF said a consultant report lays out implementation steps and funding needs.
Representative Mary Jane Wallner opened a Feb. 11 hearing on House Bill 661, which would require Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) practice to preserve Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and veterans benefits that belong to children in foster care, and to conserve those funds for the child’s current needs and future use rather than using them to reimburse the state for foster‑care costs.
Wallner noted a recent consultant report, the Child‑Centered Benefits Management Assessment, commissioned by DHHS with legislative funds in the previous session; she distributed the report’s findings to the committee and urged lawmakers to advance the bill so the House Finance Committee could consider the financing and implementation roadmap.
Witnesses speaking in support described practical impacts. Karen Rosenberg of Disability Rights New Hampshire said conserved benefits could fund supports that improve reunification and reduce homelessness for youth leaving care; she suggested ABLE accounts as an administrative vehicle to preserve funds without jeopardizing federal program eligibility. Stacy Phillips, a longtime foster and adoptive parent, testified that children with significant developmental or behavioral needs often require costly equipment and services not covered by regular foster stipends; she described cases where a child’s benefits were used by the state while the child later aged out with no financial resources.
Megan Dillon of New Hampshire Legal Assistance explained Social Security Administration program rules and said federal guidance (SSA POMS) already discourages automatically assigning the state as a representative payee without first exploring suitable family or kin payees. She recommended stronger state screening and use of preferred family payees where appropriate.
DCYF officials (division director Marie Noonan and general counsel Susan Larrabee) praised the consultant’s report as a detailed roadmap but said implementation would require funding. Noonan noted the agency does not currently have the appropriations to absorb the systems and administrative changes the report recommends and that billing/reimbursement practices would need to be adjusted if the state stopped retaining children’s federal benefits for reimbursement.
Former foster youth Dawson Hayes described having roughly $16,000 of his Social Security payments retained by the state while he was in care; he said the funds would have provided a meaningful start when he left care. Waypoint and other service providers described frequent encounters with youth who experience housing instability after aging out of the system; witnesses argued that conserved benefits would provide critical transition supports.
The committee did not take a vote. Several witnesses urged the committee to move the bill to House Finance (as last year) to consider appropriation language and detailed implementation steps from the consultant report.
