An Act protecting benefits owed to foster children
By Ms. Comerford, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 105) of Joanne M. Comerford for legislation to protect benefits owed to foster children. Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities.
The Commonwealth previously intercepted monthly Social Security and veterans benefits paid to foster children whose parents have died or have become disabled, reappropriating the funds through the state’s annual budget, but stopped this practice in 2024. This bill codifies the end to this practice and directs state officials to preserve benefits for foster children to use when they transition to adulthood and independent living. The bill also requires the Department of Children and Families to provide each child with financial literacy training beginning by age 14, and it establishes a reporting and accounting system to track the receipt and use of these funds.
Section-by-section summary:
Section 1: Defines “Benefits,” as Social Security Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, Retirement, Survivors or Disability Insurance Benefits (RSDI), and other federal benefits.
Section 2: Defines “Representative Payee or Fiduciary,” as any person or entity designated to receive benefits for a minor child under DCF rules for these benefits.
Section 3: Adds a provision to M.G.L c. 119, §23, requiring that DCF comply with the new rules of this bill regarding benefits for children in its custody, including eligibility screening, representative payee or fiduciary assistance, notice, benefits accounting, conservation of benefits and other services concerning benefits.
Section 4: Adds a new section, M.G.L c. 119, §23D, regarding DCF’s treatment of federal benefits for children in DCF custody.
(a) DCF is required to make all reasonable efforts to identify within 60 days of the child being committed to custody of the department whether the child is already receiving or may be eligible to receive benefits, and then annually afterwards. The department shall apply for benefits on the child’s behalf if it believes the child is eligible for benefits.
(b) The department may apply to be a child’s representative payee or fiduciary. However, if the goal is family reunification, DCF must consider whether applying to become the child’s representative payee or fiduciary will undermine the goal of reunification and not be in the child’s best interests.
(c) DCF must provide timely notice to the counsel for the child, as well as counsel for the parent or parents or legal guardian or guardians of activity and steps taken in that child’s benefits case.
(d) When the department is the child’s representative payee or fiduciary, it must keep an accounting of the child’s benefits, and make available to child’s counsel accounting information.
(e) If DCF is the child’s representative payee or fiduciary, the benefits must be used on the child’s unmet needs, which would not ordinarily be funded by another source, or conserved for the child in an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account to assist them in the transition to adulthood and living independently. The funds cannot go towards reimbursing the Commonwealth for the child’s placement in foster care.
(f) The department shall take steps to conserve the benefits of children receiving benefits to assist them in the transition to adulthood and living independently, including by creating accounts in which to hold the children’s funds.
(g) DCF must provide the child with ongoing financial information regarding the eligibility for benefits, as well as the existence, amount, availability, use, and limitations of funds conserved for the child, beginning at age 14 and tailored to the individual child.
(h) DCF shall provide the child with ongoing financial literacy training and support, beginning at 14 years of age and tailored to the individual child. Financial literacy resources concerning the use of conserved funds shall also be made available to all parents, guardians, and adoptive parents gaining access to funds conserved by DCF.
(i) DCF shall provide an annual report to the legislature detailing the number of children in their care receiving benefits for which the department is the representative payee, the number of children in the department’s care who are receiving federal benefits, the amount of benefits being conserved by the dept., and the number and type of accounts established for these children.
(j) The report shall also include information on numbers of children screened for benefits eligibility, those who were already receiving benefits, and the number and type of applications the department submitted.
(k) Subsections a-j shall apply also to the benefits of young adults ages 18-22 for whom the department is acting as a representative payee. The department shall continue to provide financial literacy training.
Section 5: Regulations to implement this law must be promulgated within 90 days after the bill becomes law. However, the requirements on notice and financial literacy provisions will go into effect 18 months after the bill becomes law. Until then, DCF is to make its best efforts to ensure compliance with these requirements.
* The bill summary was created by the Primary Sponsor of the bill; no committee of the General Court certifies the accuracy of its contents.
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