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My daughter went to prison and she sent me POA for my grandkids and to file for her taxes and I already recieved her state check where can I cash it if its under her name.

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Hopefully the state you live in granted you temporary custody of your grandchildren. A POA is fine for managing your daughter's finances, but has no legal bearing when minor children are involved with an incarcerated parent. If the state granted you custody, you are considered their legal guardian and that overrides any POA. If you just assumed responsibility for your grandchildren, I would recommend seeking legal counsel. Not sure where the father fits in, but he does have legal rights over these children. Your posting is to vague for what advice you are seeking.
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You deposit the check in her account if you are signing her checks. You can also sign it "for deposit only" in your account and wait for it to clear. The children should be receiving some sort of assistance through the county DSS and hopefully child support from their father. Save all your receipts so you can prove what money is spent on them.
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You can sign it as her POA and deposit it in her account or probably put it in your account. You should probably also use some of it to buy a money order to deposit some in her prison commissary account to buy a candy bar once in a while. Now as to the question you didn't ask....people doing POAs for care of their kids by a relative usually do a pretty sloppy job of it. First, the father(s) of the kids would normally have some paternal rights to the kids if they have acknowledged paternity and/or are on the birth certificate. This normally means they have equal rights to the kids as does the mother. In this situation it is quite possible for a father to sweep in and pick up his kid from you. Make sure you get some sort of legal custody. Try not to get Child Protective Services involved because they know dad can get the child and if your life has any blemishes on it (DUI,domestic violence etc) they are going to likely end up taking the child from you and send him off with dad. That is probably not the desired outcome here. I suggest you find a family law attorney (maybe her criminal atty can recommend one) and make sure you have everything set up the way it should be. Also, I'm assuming this is her first year in prison. I think that in the current and future years that you will want to claim the kids on your tax return, so keep some sort of record that you are supporting them. A father may want to get the child or pressure you to let him claim a child on his return to possibly get a larger refund for himself and may or may not care about the best interests of the child. Good luck.
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