Florida Governor Rick Scott’s recently reported misuse of a “blind trust” (To Avoid Conflicts, Rick Scott Created a Trust Blind in Name Only, NY Times) isn’t his first misuse of a trust. Gov. Scott has been partnering with companies to search for foster children who are disabled or have dead parents – routing their disability and survivor benefits into a “master trust” – and then diverting the money to state revenue.
The Scott administration has been taking over $9 million in survivor and disability benefits from foster children each year. The state is even taking Veteran’s benefits from foster children whose parents died in the military.
Here’s how the revenue scheme works. Florida privatized its foster care agencies, and has been collaborating with those agencies to increase the number of foster children classified as disabled and to locate children with deceased parents – not to provide more services to the children, but so the state can take their resources. A revenue contractor, MAXIMUS, Inc., has been helping some of the agencies – including Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, Inc. – to increase the amount of resources obtained from foster children.
Florida’s foster care agencies apply for children’s Social Security disability (SSI) and and survivor benefits – funds belonging to the children, but the agencies insert themselves as representative payee to gain control of the children’s money. The agencies are obligated to only use or conserve the children’s money in their individualized best interests. But instead, the agencies divert the children’s money to the state’s “master trust,” and the Scott administration has then taken most of the children’s funds from the trust to replenish the state coffers.
Harm results. When a foster child is not able to successfully transition to independence – and becomes incarcerated, homeless, unemployed, or in need of further public assistance – we all pay the cost. Consider the statistics: Twice as many foster children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as war veterans; over one-third of children aging out of foster care never graduate from high school; only 3 percent complete college; less than half find employment; 85 percent suffer from mental health issues; over one-third are homeless; and almost 75 percent of males become incarcerated by age 26.
The foster care agencies do not even receive more funds through the practice. Rather, the children’s resources are taken to bolster state revenue by paying foster care costs that the state is already legally obligated to pay. Florida is forcing foster children to pay for their own care.
Gov. Scott says publically that people shouldn't receive public assistance, but should just get a job – pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. But behind the scenes, he has used foster children to maximize their federal public assistance – so his administration can take the children’s funds.
And the thing is, foster children just want a chance at their own “American dream.” The Governor’s grandchildren benefit from his assets worth over $255 million. Florida’s foster children simply hope to benefit from their own small amount of resources. Disabled foster children hope to use their disability benefits to strive for economic independence. Foster children whose parents died hope to use their survivor benefits in a way that would have made their parents proud. Foster children whose parents died in the military hope to honor their parents by using their VA benefits to become self-sufficient – to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Other states have also engaged in this revenue scheme, but that doesn't make it right. In fact, a past assessment report that MAXIMUS prepared for Maryland described foster children as a "revenue generating mechanism." Despite opposition from Governor Larry Hogan, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation this year to begin protecting foster children's resources and teaching financial literacy to help them start planning for their futures.
Rather than taking children’s resources, Florida could let foster children help themselves by using their own funds to prepare for their difficult transition to independence: saving their funds for college costs or vocational training, to purchase tools or equipment for work, to help pay future rent or to purchase a car – now virtually a necessity for independent living – or conserving their money for the countless other expenses the children will encounter.
Governor Scott could stop taking foster children’s funds immediately, with no legislation needed. But if Scott refuses to stop harming foster children, the Florida Legislature should consider – and improve upon – a bill similar to Maryland’s to protect the resources of Florida’s most vulnerable children.
Because if a foster child anywhere in Florida is harmed, we are all harmed.
Daniel L. Hatcher is a professor of law at the University of Baltimore and author of The Poverty Industry; his email is dhatcher@ubalt.edu.
