Bill Caption

Relating to the ability of certain relative caretakers of dependent children to receive supplemental financial assistance and be assigned as protective payees for financial assistance payments.

Fiscal Notes

No significant fiscal implication to the state is anticipated. 

Bill Analysis

Current law only allows qualified grandparents age 45 or older taking care of dependent children to be eligible for supplemental financial assistance. The bill would make more relative caretakers of dependent children qualified for supplemental financial assistance (aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters) and lower the age requirement from 45 to 25. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

This legislation applies to children who have "been deprived of parental support or care because of the death, continued absence from home, or physical or mental incapacity of a parent" or who have been judicially removed from their family home "as a result of a judicial determination that the child's residence there is contrary to his or her welfare".

In these cases, if extended relatives cannot provide care, the affected children may end up in the state foster care system which in most cases is less preferable for the welfare of the child and more costly to the taxpayers than if they remain with extended family.

The substantial lowering of the age requirement for relative caregivers and the extended list of relatives qualified to receive payments is in keeping with personal responsibility by opening up the range of family members who would be eligible to provide care for dependent children whose parents are unable to do so and thus preventing those children from going into the foster care system.