Foster Care & Social Security Benefits

History

• A pressing concern of legislators regarding foster care at the close of the1990s was that many children in the foster-care system who had been unable to find homes were struggling to properly transition into adulthood. A major reason for this was the fact that the programs provided to aid them were not comprehensive and that gaps existed in areas such as housing, medical insurance and education. It was recommended that more Social Security-related assistance be provided to compensate for the shortcomings of these programs. To this end, an act of Congress---the Foster Care Independence Act---was created and was signed into law as Public Law 106-169 by President Clinton.

Job help

• This law provides states with flexible funding to help foster children likely to leave the system at age 18 to obtain employment benefits. To this end, the states were given the power to promote the self-sufficiency of these youths by providing them with assistance relating to housing, career exploration, and job placement and retention.

Educational assistance

• The law also provided funding to the states to helps these youths further their education. These resources were to be directed to helping these youths obtain high school diplomas, receive post-secondary education, and get vocational training. They were also intended to help youths receive more focused training in such key areas as budgeting, substance-abuse prevention, and preventive health measures like nutrition education, pregnancy prevention, and smoking avoidance.

Medicaid continuation

• The law also modified Medicaid law so that states would be permitted to provide Medicaid coverage to those from 18 to 20 years old who had already left the foster-care system. In addition, states would also be allowed to provide Medicaid to other former foster-care youths if their resources and income were found to be below specified minimum levels.

Resource limits

• The law also allows youths in foster care to have assets of up to $10,000 without compromising the assistance they can receive from the government. The past law had a resource limit of $1,000, above which youths would cease to be eligible for assistance.