Potential Changes to Social Security Benefits: State lawmakers are working to help foster children access much-needed Social Security benefits.
Marshall Project report from 2021 finds that about 10 percent of foster children throughout the country are entitled to Social Security benefits, either because their parents have died or because they are disabled.
AB 2906, introduced in February and referred to the state Assembly’s Appropriations Committee, could increase foster children’s Social Security benefits.
The State Department of Social Services is permitted to use Social Security survivors’ benefits and Supplemental Security Income to pay for or reimburse foster care and supervision costs.
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By the bill’s text, the money will go to county placement agencies. According to the new legislation, foster care agencies would need to ensure, among other things, that federal Social Security survivors’ benefits are not used to reimburse the placing agency for any costs associated with the child’s care or supervision. This new law will take effect on January 1, 2025, if passed.
Stock image of a Social Security card and U.S. dollars. California lawmakers have proposed a bill to ensure foster children receive their benefits directly.
According to Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who introduced the bill, co-authored by Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson, counties across California pocket millions in Social Security benefits.
California is not the only state employing this practice, according to the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego.
According to Ed Howard, senior counsel at the Children’s Advocacy Institute, too many of these children end up homeless and terrified on their 18th birthdays, too many of them end up trafficked, and too few of them go to college.
As a result of the veto, California still allows counties to steal from abused and neglected children.”
According to the institute, foster children who can claim Social Security benefits will “never see a dollar of their benefits.”
“Most foster care agencies routinely screen and apply for benefits on behalf of youth,” the institute said.
Foster care agencies almost uniformly intercept the full amount of the child’s check to reimburse themselves for providing foster care to that child. They then regularly request to have the benefit checks sent directly to them.”
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