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Judge to CPS: Hands off foster care teen's income |
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Tuesday, 06 November 2007 19:00 |
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An appeals court has ordered Guilford County, North Carolina to keep its hands off a 17 year-old orphan's Social Security check after the county took his mortgage money.
The Charlotte Observer reports that social service workers were
claiming the right to the boy's $538 per month check "as reimbursement
for caring for him" in foster care. But "John G." needed at least $221
of the income to pay the mortgage on a home "his late adoptive father
willed to him." Instead of helping the boy start adulthood out as a
homeowner, the Guilford County Department of Social Services nearly
gave him the gift of homelessness, due to bank foreclosure. Then they
fought to defend their actions, appealing a lower court's order to do
the right thing.
Lewis Pitts, a North Carolina legal aid lawyer who represents children,
was an attorney for John G. in the case. Legal analysts say the John G.
case could have a national impact on how the benefits of foster
children are handled. "They are budget-starved," Pitts said about the
county, home to the City of Greensboro. "But the answer is not to steal
from children."
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