'People are going bankrupt.' Caregivers say Kentucky unfairly denying foster payments.
Holly Dillon has struggled to make her mortgage and car payments since two relatives were placed in her home by state social workers last year.
She doesn’t want the children to enter Kentucky’s foster care system, but Dillon isn’t sure she can pay for everything they need and still keep her home in Owensboro.
“I’ve gone into debt,” Dillon said. “I’m at my wit’s end. I don’t want to let them go into foster care.”
She and thousands of other family caregivers cheered in October when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said relatives caring for abused and neglected kids in Kentucky should be paid just like foster parents. The state had previously provided a $300 monthly stipend to relatives who care for abused and neglected children but that program was suspended in 2013 under former Gov. Steve Beshear due to budget cuts.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article204860249.html