Justice stays ruling on foster benefits

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on Tuesday temporarily allowed Washington state to continue taking Social Security benefits from about 1,000 orphans and disabled children to pay for their foster care.

The state Supreme Court ruled last year that the state’s practice of taking the benefits had to stop — a move that would have gone into effect Friday.

However, O’Connor decided to temporarily block the lower court’s ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court receives legal briefs for an appeal that will be filed early next month.

The state is hoping her decision will then be extended, said Kathy Spears, Washington state Department of Social and Health Services spokeswoman.

"This is good news for us — at least for now," Spears said.

Rodney Reinbold of Okanogan, an attorney who filed a class action suit on behalf of the children and thousands of others whose benefits have been taken for more than three decades, said he was disappointed that the benefits weren’t finally going to their rightful owners. He has argued that federal law prevents Social Security money from going to creditors.

"It’s the kids’ money. The state has no right to confiscate it," Reinbold said. "You can’t do it if they are prisoners. You can’t do it if they are mental patients. Why would you think they can do it to foster children?"

But under a state law, the department has been taking more than $600,000 a month from the Social Security benefits of children living in foster care to help pay for their basic needs, including food, clothing and medical care.

Spears said the state also applies for some specific lifetime benefits for the state’s disabled children and would be prevented from doing so if the state Supreme Court’s ruling is upheld.

The department has estimated that it would lose about $7 million a year if it doesn’t get the benefits. It argued that other states use the Social Security benefits in similar ways.

Reinbold took the case about 11 years ago on behalf of his neighbor, Dan Keffeler, who was orphaned. The two proceeded through a variety of legal channels to make sure that Keffeler’s grandmother, who was his guardian and appointed to receive his Social Security payments, got the benefits — not the state’s foster care accounts.

When the case got too expensive, Reinbold said he expanded it to a class action suit that he hopes will provide back payments to some 7,000 people, according to his most recent lists.

State officials "are going to have to repay all the kids," Reinbold said. "They balanced the budgets on the back of the foster children."