{"id":351932,"date":"2025-12-16T11:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T11:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/351932\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T11:17:13","slug":"social-security-survivor-benefits-millions-at-stake-trump-move-could-force-39-states-to-repay-foster-kids-social-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/351932\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security survivor benefits: Millions at stake: Trump move could force 39 states to repay foster kids\u2019 Social Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, Dec. 11, the Administration for Children and Families<\/a> (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services<\/a> (HHS) sent a letter to 39 governors. They asked the states to protect foster kids\u2019 Social Security benefits. Many people think Social Security is only for older Americans, but thousands of kids in foster care also get Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments.
State taking foster kids\u2019 social securityThe ACF said 39 state child welfare agencies are taking foster kids\u2019 earned Social Security survivor benefits<\/a>, as per the report by Daily Express US. These state agencies use the kids\u2019 benefits to pay for the state\u2019s own foster care costs instead of giving the money to the children.
\u201cEvery earned benefit dollar belongs to these foster youth, not the government agencies or bureaucrats,\u201d said ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams. Adams added, \u201cProtecting children is the core mission of child welfare, and we will keep the best interests of the child front and center in all our efforts\u201d, as stated by Daily Express US. Social Security survivor benefits come from a deceased parent\u2019s lifetime contributions and are very important for foster kids.Millions of foster kids affectedAccording to a September 2025 Social Security Advisory Report, about 27,000 foster kids receive Social Security or SSI, which is more than 5% of all foster children in the U.S, as cited by Daily Express US. Foster kids are one of the most vulnerable groups that Social Security serves, and states taking their benefits is a growing nationwide problem. AP News reported that states often use these benefits to save millions of taxpayer dollars on foster care services.
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The ACF said their goal is to stop states from taking earned benefits and to make sure the money helps foster kids as they leave state care. Back in March 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren<\/a> raised this issue in a hearing with former Social Security Commissioner Martin O\u2019Malley. She asked him to ban states from taking foster kids\u2019 survivor benefits. Warren noted that in 2018, states took at least $179 million from foster kids to pay for unrelated state priorities.
She said, \u201cDozens of states are now secretly screening the kids in their care to see if they would be eligible for Social Security benefits, sometimes even hiring data mining companies\u2026 then funneling those benefits into state coffers to pay for anything from paper clips to prisons\u201d, as stated by Daily Express US. Some states have acted to protect foster kids\u2019 Social Security benefits. Adams, who previously led Idaho\u2019s Department of Health and Welfare, ended the practice in Idaho.Idaho is one of 11 states that have policies stopping the diversion of foster kids\u2019 Social Security benefits. Now, the ACF and Social Security Administration<\/a> are working to change the practices in the remaining 39 states where benefits are still being taken.FAQsQ1. Can states take foster kids\u2019 Social Security benefits?<\/p>\n

Some states have been taking foster kids\u2019 Social Security survivor benefits to cover state costs, but the federal government is now working to stop this.<\/p>\n

Q2. How many foster kids get Social Security benefits in the US?<\/p>\n

About 27,000 foster children, over 5% of all foster kids, receive Social Security or SSI payments in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, Dec. 11, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[175177,28,175173,147,530,175175,1552,175172,175176,175174,644,797],"class_list":["post-351932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-administration-for-children-and-families","tag-business","tag-foster-kids-social-security-benefits","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-senator-elizabeth-warren","tag-social-security-administration","tag-social-security-survivor-benefits","tag-ssi-payments-foster-care","tag-states-taking-social-security-benefits","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s-department-of-health-and-human-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}