Requires commissioners of local social services districts to screen, apply for, and use and conserve retirement, survivors and disability insurance, supplemental security income, veterans' or any other federal social security benefits on behalf of children placed in foster care; provides for responsibilities of local commissioners of social services appointed to serve as the representative payee for a child; provides for technical assistance and financial literacy for foster children; makes related provisions.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8036
SPONSOR: Hevesi TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring
commissioners of local social services districts to screen, apply for,
and use and conserve retirement, survivors and disability insurance,
supplemental security income, veterans' and other federal social securi-
ty benefits on behalf of children placed in foster care
PURPOSE:
This bill seeks to ensure that local social services districts (LSSDs)
are meeting their obligations to provide foster care, free of charge, to
all children who need it, as well as complying with the federal law,
regulations, and policies requiring that Social Security Benefits be
used on behalf of the specific child entitled to receive them.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the Social Services Law § 398(6) by adding three new
paragraphs, q, r and s:
Paragraph q provides that LSSDs must timely screen all children who
enter foster care and apply for all federal benefits. for each of those
children who is potentially eligible, rescreen all children annually or
within 30 days of any change in circumstances that may make them eligi-
ble, and determine the most appropriate representative payee to serve as
the child's fiduciary in managing the funds.
Paragraph r provides that when an LSSD serves as the representative
payee for a child, it must meet regularly with the child to assess their
needs, use the funds to meet any current needs not met through the
foster care system, and conserve the remaining funds in an individual-
ized account, including specialized accounts that permit savings in
excess of any relevant federal or state assets cap. The LSSD must also
provide an annual accounting to the child and their attorney outlining
how the benefit has been used or conserved and transfer all conserved
funds to the child or new representative payee upon discharge from
foster care. LSSDs are prohibited from using children's social security
benefits to cover the LSSD's own costs of providing foster care.
Paragraph s provides that LSSDs must provide information to the child
and their representative payee regarding use and conservation of bene-
fits, including the use of specialized accounts to save above the assets
cap for Supplemental Security Income. LSSDs must also assist young
people in filing to serve as their own representative payees, to be
recertified for adult benefits, and to change the representative payee.
It also mandates LSSDs to provide at least 5 hours of financial literacy
to all children starting at age 14 and to all family members who will
serve as representative payees.
Section two sets forth the effective date.
EXISTING LAW:
Federal law and regulations require that Social Security benefits be
used, with input from the child beneficiary, to meet the current unmet
needs of the individual child or saved for their future needs. New York
State law requires that LSSDs make decisions and take actions that are
in the best interests of the child and provide foster care for free to
any and all children who may need it.
JUSTIFICATION:
For decades, LSSDs across the nation screened children who entered
foster care for eligibility for Social Security and other federal bene-
fits, applied for those benefits on behalf of children in foster care,
and retained the money. This egregious practice turned children, often
poor, Black and Latine children, into sources of revenue for the state.
This was first brought to light through reporting by NPR and the Mars-
hall Project
(https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/04/22 /foster-care-agencies-
take- thousands-of-dollars-owed-to-kids-most- children-have-no-idea),
who elevated the stories of children and young people who lived through
this practice and had tens of thousands of dollars secretly taken from
them. JurisdiCtions across the country have begun shifting their prac-
tices to ensure that children's federal benefits are not taken by the
state simply because they are placed in foster care. New York State has
long engaged in this practice of taking children's benefits and now has
the opportunity to lead the nation in addressing the systematic economic
disenfranchisement of these vulnerable children in foster care.
In New York State, children who do not receive federal benefits are not
required to pay for their foster care placement, no matter their finan-
cial circumstances. Although LSSDs have a legal obligation to provide
foster care for free to all children, for years they have made disabled
children and those who have lost one or both parents pay for the foster
care system itself, using vulnerable children as a revenue stream.
Children pulled into the foster care system in New York State are
disproportionately children of color and are often from the poorest,
most vulnerable families. Children who age out of foster care currently
face myriad difficulties, at significantly increased rates from their
peers. Children leaving the system typically have much higher rates of
homelessness, shelter stays, unemployment, arrest and incarceration, and
face challenges paying for education, childcare, transportation, and
basic needs.
Having access to their own benefits can serve as a lifeline for children
transitioning out of the foster care system, and economic stability can
reduce future involvement in the foster care system, as well as the
juvenile and criminal justice systems, Federal benefits conserved on
behalf of a former foster youth could pay for housing, education, and
transportation, as well as costs related to their disabilities.
Protecting benefits on behalf of children would allow them to:
*Purchase necessary items not covered by foster care maintenance
payments, such as specialized medical equipment, technology
(including laptops, iPads, and tablets for academic work, and enter-
tainment), and equipment for participating in extracurricular activ-
ities;
*Establish savings for post-high school education opportunities;
*Pay for medical services (including mental health care) not covered by
Medicaid, or from a private provider to avoid lengthy waitlists for
services;
*Practice financial literacy while still in the supportive care of ACS;
and
*Transition to economic independence after discharge from care, includ-
ing being able to afford a stable apartment.
This bill would reduce economic hardships and the collateral conse-
quences that children who go through the foster care system suffer by
ensuring they are not economically disadvantaged simply because of their
placement in foster care and instead that their benefits are used to
their advantage.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8036
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 22, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Social Services
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to requiring
commissioners of local social services districts to screen, apply for,
and use and conserve retirement, survivors and disability insurance,
supplemental security income, veterans' and other federal social secu-
rity benefits on behalf of children placed in foster care
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 6 of section 398 of the social services law is
2 amended by adding three new paragraphs (q), (r) and (s) to read as
3 follows:
4 (q) For all children in foster care, a commissioner shall: (i) Screen
5 for potential eligibility for retirement, survivors and disability
6 insurance, supplemental security income, veterans', or any other federal
7 social security benefits and apply for such benefits on behalf of any
8 child determined to be potentially eligible within sixty days of such
9 child entering foster care.
10 (ii) Rescreen all children in foster care annually for eligibility for
11 all federal benefits, and within thirty days of receipt of any new
12 information tending to indicate that a child may be eligible for bene-
13 fits and apply for such benefits on behalf of any such child within
14 sixty days of the determination of such potential eligibility.
15 (iii) Provide notice to a child, such child's attorney, and such
16 child's parent or parents or legal guardian or guardians of any applica-
17 tion, decision, communication, or appeal related to such child's retire-
18 ment, survivors and disability insurance, supplemental security income,
19 veterans' or any other federal social security benefits.
20 (iv) For each child the commissioner determines may potentially be
21 eligible for benefits, identify an appropriate representative payee, in
22 cooperation with such child, such child's family, and the attorney for
23 such child, pursuant to the established categories of preferred payees
24 in 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.2021 and 416.621. The commissioner shall seek to be
25 appointed as the representative payee only when there is no other appro-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11060-02-5
A. 8036 2
1 priate preferred payee available who agrees to use and preserve the
2 benefits in the interest of a child.
3 (r) For each child for whom a commissioner is appointed to serve as
4 the representative payee, such commissioner shall: (i) Meet regularly
5 with any child who is developmentally able to participate in financial
6 planning and such child's attorney to develop a plan to use and conserve
7 the benefits.
8 (ii) Use the payments to meet the child's specific immediate unmet
9 needs, as determined in cooperation with such child, such child's care-
10 taker, and such child's attorney. Benefits may be used to meet such
11 child's needs for goods or services not provided through the foster care
12 system and that are not covered by such child's health insurance,
13 including but not limited to, disability aids, school tuition, a car, or
14 tools of the trade for employed youth.
15 (iii) Monitor the federal and state asset limitations on federal bene-
16 fits, and deposit any benefits that are subject to such asset limitation
17 and are not used to meet the child's immediate needs in a special needs
18 trust, a pooled special needs trust, an achieving a better life experi-
19 ence (ABLE) account under 26 U.S. Code § 529A, or other trust account or
20 legal mechanism that will allow a child to save in excess of any federal
21 and state asset limitations, in accordance with 20 C.F.R. § 416.645.
22 (iv) Provide the child and the attorney for such child with an annual
23 accounting of the use or conservation of such child's benefits.
24 (v) Upon discharge from foster care, transfer all conserved funds to
25 the new representative payee or the child, as appropriate.
26 (vi) Decline to use a child's benefits to reimburse the local social
27 services district for the costs associated with maintaining any child in
28 the care and custody or the custody and guardianship of the commission-
29 er, including the administrative costs associated with foster care.
30 (s) For all children in foster care, a commissioner shall: (i) Provide
31 all representative payees and beneficiaries with information about what
32 is legally required under law regarding the use and conservation of
33 federal benefits.
34 (ii) Assist any child who may qualify to be their own payee in
35 completing an application to become the payee for such child's benefits.
36 (iii) Assist any child who needs to be re-certified to remain eligible
37 for a benefit after reaching the age of majority to be re-certified far
38 enough in advance of such child reaching the age of majority to avoid a
39 gap in the provision of such benefit.
40 (iv) For any child who the commissioner anticipates will be discharged
41 from care within three months, and who is not able to serve as such
42 child's own representative payee, identify an appropriate representative
43 payee, in cooperation with such child, such child's family, and the
44 attorney for such child, pursuant to the established categories of
45 preferred payees in 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.2021 and 416.621, and assist the
46 identified individual in processing an application to become the repre-
47 sentative payee.
48 (v) Provide at least five hours of developmentally appropriate finan-
49 cial literacy and skill building annually for all children age fourteen
50 or older, and for all family members who will serve as a representative
51 payee for a child. Such training shall include skill building around
52 proper use and conservation of benefits, including the use of special-
53 ized accounts enumerated in subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (r) of this
54 subdivision.
55 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
