From NPR:
It's been almost 45 years since Kathy Stolz-Silvis was in foster care in Pennsylvania. Stolz-Silvis was nine when her father died, making her and her siblings eligible for Social Security survivor benefits. But she didn't become aware of those benefits until decades later — after reading an investigation published by The Marshall Project and NPR. ...
"Out of curiosity, I called them to find out what happened to my benefits when I was in foster care," Stolz-Silvis said. "The person on the other end of the line told me they were not allowed to give me that information." ...
In recent months, The Marshall Project and NPR have heard from dozens of former foster youth who described similar failed efforts to learn whether a state or local agency had applied to become their "representative payee," allowing the agency to receive their federal benefits, a process permitted by federal regulations. ...
In an email, Darren Lutz, a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration, said that for those inquiring about past benefits: "We maintain records on the benefits we have paid and can answer their questions." The agency has "provided guidance and training to our employees on our rules and requirements for selecting representative payees, notifying the proper parties, and monitoring the performance of foster care agencies that serve as the representative payee for a child in foster care."
For current foster youth, Administration for Children and Families spokesperson Pat Fisher confirmed that both the agency and the Social Security Administration are developing joint guidance to state agencies about how to handle these cases, though there is no timeline for releasing it. ...
4 comments:
Her benefits should have been sent to whomever was responsible for her care. The money should have been used to pay for her room and board.
The benefits aren't an inheritance. They are to be spent on clothing, housing, food, etc for the child.
The story seems to neglect the awful truth of foster kids: if it were not for the checks the state/county sends the foster parents, they would never have taken the kids. Entire families have scores of these children throughout their life to pay the bills.
And unfortunately, insisting on detailed and onsite presence to corroborate even a random sample of the foster families these state/county agencies oversee is near impossible and cannot be funded appropriately by Congress.
Even worse, many of the state agencies do not care if the foster parents apply for the benefits, except they never tell the parents the child is eligible. They even go so far as to not even give them the birth certificate or Social Security card. Which seems they do this just to keep the money coming.
But oh hell if you do not process the SSA-11 within 30 days they call non-stop looking for that money.
And if the rep payee screws up the eligibility, guess on whose record the overpayment falls! The child.
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