Many advocates for youth in foster care were hopeful that the Biden administration would take action on the use of federal disability and survivor benefits owed to kids in the system. With just a few months left in his tenure that is unlikely, but the administration did take a first step toward federal action down the line.
A request for information, published in today’s Federal Register and released jointly by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Children’s Bureau, asks the public for input on how the U.S. government could “support broader State and local efforts to improve the outcomes of children in the child welfare system who are eligible for Federal benefits.” The deadline to submit input to the administration is Dec. 2.
About 5% of all youth in foster care qualify for Supplemental Security Income (because of their own disability) or Social Security benefits (because of the disability, retirement or death of a parent). When benefit payments are given to a child, an adult “representative payee” oversees use of those funds. This representative can be a parent, a relative, and in the case of foster youth, it can be the system itself.
A joint investigative report in 2021 by The Marshall Project and NPR reflected a concern that many advocates for children in foster care had raised already: that child welfare systems were establishing eligibility for children, becoming the payor on the benefits, and applying that money to pay for the everyday costs of foster care.
In 2023 alone, according to today’s Federal Register notice, $190 million in benefits were paid out to child welfare agencies on behalf of children in their custody. The amount of that money conserved by states ranged from less than 1% to 31%.
While it is legal for agencies to do this, which the administration notes in its Federal Register notice today, the morality of the practice has been called into question.
Here’s Ian Marx, a former foster youth, in an op-ed published by The Imprint in 2022:
…I never saw a red cent of my mother’s survivor benefits, or the Supplemental Security Income benefits I became eligible for after coming into care. These benefits, which my social worker bluntly told me I shouldn’t bother to pursue, would have totaled over $1,000 a month.
My faith in the system that was supposed to care for me was shattered as I realized I was in the midst of an Orwellian nightmare: government agencies pocketing money from children who were orphaned or disabled, with no accountability or transparency.
In the past three years, The Imprint has reported regularly on state and local attempts to better regulate the use of foster youth benefits. More than a dozen states have passed some legislation on the matter, along with major cities and counties including Los Angeles, New York City and Philadelphia. Many other states have advanced legislation or policies that have yet to pass or take effect.
But there have also been calls for the federal government, which originates these benefits payments through the SSA, to step in.
The information request “acknowledges the overwhelming momentum in over half of states to better protect foster youth’s rights and assets, and the need for federal rules and guidance to support these efforts,” said Amy Harfeld, national policy director at the Children’s Advocacy Institute.
The administration outlined several specific points it would like feedback from the field about. Here are a few that jumped out to Youth Services Insider.
Pre-removal: How might child welfare agencies help to screen more children for benefits eligibility when they are involved in cases but remain with their parents?
Conserving vs. spending funds: What do child welfare agencies use the funds for beyond the basics of foster care, and how do they store money that is saved for the child to use as an adult?
Needs after foster care: For current and former foster youth, “what current needs would be met if you had access to your conserved SSA benefits?”
It will also be very interesting to see any feedback received on another question posed in the request:
For child welfare agencies, if you were required to conserve SSA benefits on behalf of eligible children in foster care, would that affect the agency’s decision about whether to screen or apply for SSA benefits on behalf of a child?
The majority of foster youth receiving these benefits were not getting them before entering child welfare’s orbit: the agency screens them and becomes the payee. So while there is currently a lot of dissatisfaction over agencies using these funds to pay for regular foster care costs, it is also the case that the kids would not have been connected to the benefits in the first place without the effort of said agencies.
This question is more politely asking: If using the money to pay for foster care was off the table, and the money could only be saved for the child to use later, would an agency still screen and apply for benefits?
As mentioned, the window has likely closed on any hopes that the Biden administration or Congress would take any action on this in 2024. Harfeld said both SSA and the Children’s Bureau have the authority to impact state policy, and that the input gathered from this request could provide “a clear path to accomplish that.”
