The House wants Missouri to stop taking money from the children in its care without their knowledge, money that they could use for things like continuing education, buying a home, or otherwise bettering their lives.
House Bill 2227 would end a practice legislators were “shocked” to learn the state has been engaged in, and one some called “egregious.”
Missouri has, for decades, taken benefits that are supposed to go to children in foster care and used them to pay its own agencies for providing that care. Those benefits include things like Social Security funds intended for those with disabilities, or survivors’ benefits for children whose parents have died.
About five percent of children under the state’s control are eligible for such benefits, which often amount to more than $900 a month per child. The intended recipients rarely know that someone else has applied for their money or that they were even eligible for these benefits.
As for how much money the state intercepted from children in its foster system last year alone, the bill’s sponsor, Representative Hannah Kelly (R-Mountain Grove) told her colleagues, “The fiscal note says there’s an impact of approximately $6,566,982. That money belongs to children who are wards of the state, who have lost parents and loved ones, who are owed benefits that the state takes.”
In 2018, the state intercepted $8.1 million; in 2020, $7.9 million; and in 2022, the figure was last checked at $7.1 million.
The legislation would allow that money to be used for unmet needs that exceed what the state is obligated to pay. Legislators heard that in the case of social security benefits for a child about to age out of the foster system, one year’s worth could translate to two years of books and supplies for college; ten months of rent for a one bedroom apartment; up to one year of childcare; or to offset four years of SNAP benefits.
As HB 2227 has progressed through the House, legislators at each step, upon hearing for the first time what Missouri has been doing, have responded with disbelief.
Ferguson Democrat Raychel Proudie stressed to her fellows, “This is not something that’s coming out of general revenue or any sort of taxes. This is money that belongs to those children. They are our children, those are considered Missouri’s children. No child wants to be in foster care and we certainly should not be charging children things that they are entitled to, to just give them a basal level of their living. These are the same children who sometimes go to their foster parents’ home with trash bags, everything that they own in the world, and we are still taking, taking, taking from these children.”
Before House members voted on HB 2227, Kelly stressed to them that passing it is the right thing to do.
“It ensures that moneys owed children go to the children.”
Proudie praised Kelly for bringing the legislation up, and for her continued commitment to issues concerning the safety and wellbeing of children.
The House voted 154-0 to send that bill to the Senate. That chamber could soon vote on whether to send its version of this legislation to the House.