State: Children won't have to pay parents' welfare debts

The much-criticized practice is ending as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit that accused state officials of essentially holding children responsible for their caregivers' debts, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday (http://lat.ms/JvZlvT).

The California Department of Social Services said refunds will be provided for any such collections made since Jan. 6.

Clarence Ayers, a 73-year-old Fresno County resident, joined the lawsuit after officials cut back a $334 monthly stipend he used to care for his 14-year-old great-granddaughter. CalWorks officials said the reduction was made because over the years, they had mistakenly sent $10,000 to the girl's mother and now-deceased grandfather.

"Irene wasn't even born when some of that money was paid," Ayers told the Times. "She was being punished for something she never did."

In January, counties were told to stop collecting on past overpayments from adults whose families benefited from the funds when they were children. Social Services spokesman Michael Weston said officials now will focus on recovering overpayments from the parents or caregivers who received overpayments.

"These debts do not belong to these children," Patti Prunhuber, a Public Interest Law Project attorney involved in the case, told the Times. "They are not responsible for them. They didn't create them, and they shouldn't follow them into their new households or into adulthood."

It's unknown how many people were targets of the collections, which date back at least to 1981, Weston said. Until 1996, federal law required that officials recover overpayments from any member of the household possible, he said.

Now states can decide whether to pursue those who were minors when the money was provided. In Los Angeles County alone, 4,682 children and 88 adults were having money docked from their benefits to recoup such overpayments at the time the practice was stopped, according to the Times. The county stopped going after tax refunds in 2000.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com