From WITF:
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.
The report, published last year, found that foster care agencies in at least 49 states and Washington, D.C., have been applying for Social Security on behalf of foster youth in their care who are eligible for death, disability or veterans’ benefits. The agencies often keep the money, often without notifying the children, their family members or lawyers. ...
“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.” ...
Jayden Kiley was 17 and in foster care when her mother died, and she became eligible for death benefits from Social Security. But for eight months, between October 2019 and July 2020, she said, nobody told her about the benefits — or that her mother had even died. She found that out from a sibling.
“I didn’t know any of this,” Kiley said.
For two years, Kiley tried to get information from Social Security about her benefits, but she said that a representative told her that every time she called she was put at the bottom of a waitlist, so she stopped calling for a while. Eventually she found out the amount due to her is about $8,500, but said she hasn’t received any of it. ...
In case you're wondering, those who were in foster care are definitely entitled to information on what happened to any Social Security benefits they were entitled to as a minor but they aren't entitled to get the money back if it was paid to a foster care agency unless there was some unusual situation such as a child coming out of foster care but the foster care agency mistakenly continuing to receive payments from Social Security.
9 comments:
I am not a fan of the foster care system having worked in it for several years after getting out of college. However, on this issue, the agencies have acted reasonably. It costs taxpayers a lot of money to keep a child in care. This money was used for the child's care which is legal and appropriate. If you've ever seen some of these parents who get SSI you know that often the money is spent to pay rent, buy food for the family, etc. And, sometimes it is spent on things that have nothing to do with the child's care. To receive SSI, a child's parents cannot have much income or resources. I've seen families where children's SSI checks are the only income for the family. It is probably very rare to see a situation where a parent of a child who receives SSI can or will put that money aside for the child's use when they get older. e're not going back and asking these parents to give their adult children their SSI money that was spent on the child's care years ago. Why should we expect the taxpayers to do that. W
Must be a slow day finding new stuff to be mad about. This same article was posted on this blog July 22, albeit from NPR's website rather than WITF, who simply reposted the NPR story.
But we’re not talking about SSI. And the federal government isn’t really the problem. It’s the states. The states already had a duty to look after these kids in foster care. They were using federal benefits to supplement their state funds. The kids would and should have gotten the same foster services without SSA payments. Conceptually the right thing here is to get the state to pay back the kids. But of course that won’t happen.
Why shouldn’t the states use the benefits to offset the cost of care when available?
That money was never intended to be a winfall for anyone. It was intended to be spent on the child's needs. So, if the money is given to them now, is someone going to make sure they only use it for their needs and not lottery tickets?
And, are we going to start requiring parents to save the SSI money for their kids and give it to them when they become adults?
The benefits are to provide room, board, clothing, etc because of the death, disability or retirement of a parent.
If someone, foster parents, grandparents, other relatives, etc provide the necessities to the kids they should be able to use the SSA benefits as well.
When the SSA-11 comes in, it should show who not only has legal custody but physical custody of the kid. When the SSA-11 is from Children Services wanting to be payee, but shows the child with a relative, I always hold off on finalizing it until we have let the family member know to apply to be payee. More often than not, they had no clue the child was getting benefits, let alone that they could be payee.
Policy really should reflect that children services should be payees of last resort -barring cases where the child will frequently move between homes or be placed in a facility.
They should, but instead they live off of it and then no one has anything later in life,
That’s why SSI shoupd only include support services and not cash payments.
Give them medical insurance, rental subsidies, food subsidies, tutoring or other supports and child care subsidies…but not cash.
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