`Financial Incentives' Cited in Foster Care: Child-Welfare Industry Official Denies Charge of Profiting from SSI Payments

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A House panel yesterday was told that some foster-care agencies keep children in their care longer than necessary to keep government subsidies, sparking a protest from a child-welfare industry official.

Child-welfare agencies "have financial incentives" to keep children in foster care too long, said Valora Washington, program director for the Families for Kids Initiative of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich.

Miss Washington also told the House Ways and Means subcommittee on human resources that some agencies keep part of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for disabled children instead of passing them on.

David S. Liederman, …