Counties across Pennsylvania are taking millions of dollars in Social Security benefits owed to kids in foster care, a practice some child advocates equate to stealing.
These local agencies contend the practice is allowed under law and needed to offset the cost of care. But it’s often done without a child’s knowledge and how some counties use the money is unclear.
“This money belongs to these kids,” said state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia,) who last year introduced a bipartisan bill with Rep. Sheryl Delozier (R., Cumberland) that would tighten regulations on how counties can use the money.
When a child is owed Social Security benefits, federal rules mandate the money goes to their designated guardian to help support the kid’s care, or into a savings account they receive when they turn 18. But if the child is in foster care, child welfare agencies often take the money without telling them or their advocate.
Since 2020, at least 1,300 children in Pennsylvania have had money taken from them this way, to the tune of at least $15.7 million, according to a Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA analysis of four years of data obtained from 47 counties.
The statewide total could be considerably higher, as varying recordkeeping and public disclosure practices make it difficult for data obtained from the other 20 counties to be analyzed. The benefits can add up to thousands of dollars per child — money that, once they age out of foster care, could ease that transition by paying for groceries, rent, tuition, or medical treatment.
“No other group is being forced to pay their own way like this,” said U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, (D., Ill.), who has proposed a bill that would end the practice nationwide. “And this is a vulnerable population that would find a little nest egg like this life-changing.”
The Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA investigation also found:
- Nearly every county in the state took Social Security money intended for children in their care.
- More than a quarter of the agencies did not prove the money they received for specific children was actually spent on those kids.
- Only five counties in the state proved they directly notified foster care youth or their families that the county was taking the money.
Across the country, efforts to stop foster care agencies from spending all the money before kids can use it themselves are gaining momentum. Arizona, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., all have made changes in recent years to limit or end the practice.
Local government agencies, however, argue they need the money to compensate themselves for the cost of room, board, and other services they are required to provide as foster care agencies. At least one Pennsylvania lawmaker has expressed concern about creating a “windfall” for kids when they age out of the system.
In Philadelphia, the city’s Department of Human Services says it now sends letters to notify children’s advocates that the county plans to take their Social Security benefits, following a Resolve Philly and Philadelphia Inquirer report that prompted a new law from the city council in 2022.
In response to questions and findings from Spotlight PA and Resolve Philly, a spokesperson for the federal Social Security Administration (SSA) said that the agency follows a process to “ensure a payee is suitable.” The SSA did not have readily available data on how many Pennsylvania counties send in the required reports about how they use the money.
How it works
Under federal law, states must pay for foster care services, which are typically funded by a mix of state, local, and federal dollars. Children are not required to reimburse these agencies for their time in foster care.
But state and county child welfare systems nationwide and throughout Pennsylvania routinely take children’s Social Security money to offset costs.
Kids can be eligible for Social Security benefits for two reasons: their own disability or financial need, or if a parent or guardian has paid enough money into Social Security before retiring, becoming disabled, or dying.
This “survivors” money, as it’s usually called, legally belongs to the child and is intended to help them when a parent or guardian can no longer provide for them, according to the SSA. However, until they turn 18 and can manage their own finances, the federal agency sends the money to what it calls a legal “representative payee.”
The SSA allows foster care agencies to use that money to pay for monthly “maintenance” and any unmet needs, then requires whatever remains to be set aside.
Child advocates argue federal law places the cost of this care on states, and also point to a 2003 federal court decision that ruled children in foster care owe no debt for the services they receive.
According to an expert familiar with the process, Pennsylvania foster care agencies typically screen children’s records to find those who are eligible for Social Security benefits and then apply to become that payee.
Such financial representatives are legally required to act in the best interests of the children, and to pay for any unmet needs of food, shelter, medical care, and comfort.
The SSA’s guidelines list family and even close friends as preferred payees for these benefits, with government agencies as a last resort. However, if the agency is listed as a legal guardian in a court order, which is often the case, the agency becomes the first choice to receive a child’s benefits.
Even in those cases, the SSA told the newsrooms it tries to find a willing relative or friend if one is available. But the SSA said it often cannot find them. The relatives and guardians that the SSA misses are often unaware the money is available.
The end result?
Nearly 75% of children in foster care who are eligible for these benefits have a child welfare agency chosen to receive the money, according to a November 2024 SSA document.
Advocates have long decried this practice of harvesting money from children, calling it at best a clear conflict of interest.
“How can a representative payee act in a child’s best interests by taking money from them for services the government pays for?” said Daniel Hatcher, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
From 2020 through 2023, 44 of 47 Pennsylvania agencies reviewed by Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA collected Social Security benefits (and some other benefits) for foster youth. The amount of money received by counties varied widely: in one year, Forest County received $970 — while in a different year — Philadelphia received nearly $1 million.
While local foster care agencies go through the SSA’s process to receive these benefits, many had trouble providing details to reporters about how the funds were used.
Almost a quarter of the state’s agencies did not provide proof to Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA that they conduct individual accounting of the benefits.
Just four counties — Butler, Clarion, Huntingdon, and Wayne — produced the spending reports they must send to the SSA. These reports outline the total amount of money received and how much was spent on different categories like food and housing.
Other counties, such as Adams and Allegheny, provided other detailed records showing line-item expenses for foster youth like counseling, independent living expenses, and birthday gifts. In response to Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA’s findings, an Allegheny County Department of Human Services spokesperson said that “the vast majority of the funds are used to pay a foster family to care for the child.”
In contrast, Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services provided only records of bulk deposits of SSA benefits into the city’s $6 billion general fund. The data could not show how many children it collects money for or how it spends those funds.
Via an email sent to reporters in 2023 as part of the initial investigation, a Philadelphia spokesperson said the city’s collection of this money is “lawful” and that it goes toward the cost of care.
What this money means to kids
In the wake of states changing their laws regarding Social Security benefits for foster children, the SSA asked for input to inform its policies.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services responded that the amount of money received is “not materially significant to the state’s child welfare budget,” adding that the cost may be higher for rural counties with smaller budgets.
A 2021 Congressional Research Service report on the subject said that child welfare agencies describe the funding as “important.”
Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA found these Social Security benefits make up less than 1% of a typical county’s child welfare budget.
“We also know, from research, this money means a lot more to these kids than it does to the government,” said Amy Harfeld, an attorney who’s led successful efforts to change related laws in other states.
Joseph Smiley, 34, says he was separated from his mother and siblings after his dad’s death because of poverty. “My dad was the breadwinner and she could no longer take care of us,” he said of his mother.
He said he spent 15 years living across more than a dozen homes in Philadelphia’s foster care system. That included a three-year haul at his last stop, where his foster parents told him when he turned 18, “Well, that’s it,” Smiley recalled.
Looking back, he feels they were “in it for the money,” and the rotating cast of kids that cycled through the home could “count the grains of rice we got on our plate for dinner — there were no layers to it.”
The lack of food in other foster homes had led him to hide food in napkins so he could ration it out to himself later and lighten his hunger pangs, he said.
“It was like a business to them where they just kept taking in foster kids,” he said, adding that it was upsetting to think the money his father paid into the system might have been used to pay for strangers who didn’t truly care about him.
Smiley said the benefits would have been helpful during the periods of homelessness he went through, or might have enabled him to get his license and a car to make it easier to find work.
The amount of money available to a child when they age out of foster care can vary dramatically. The Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA analysis found multiple instances of a county taking $10,000 or more each year from one child.
Amy Dworsky — a senior fellow at Chapin Hall, a leading research group on child welfare — said in a statement that money can “help stabilize young people against homelessness and unemployment and other negative outcomes of aging out of foster care.”
Research also shows that homelessness in a young person’s life raises the risks of physical and mental health problems, dropping out of school, and substance use.
When counties take this money, most don’t tell youth, families, or their advocates that the foster care agency has applied to receive the benefits. Six counties said they rely on the SSA to send that notice.
The SSA, however, said it cannot legally contact children. They do send notice to the kid’s guardian, but in many cases legal documents name the child welfare agency. The result is foster children often having no idea they have money owed to them or that counties are receiving it.
In 2021, Zaveonte Winn and his brother Xavier were in the care of Vaughn Jackson, a longtime Philadelphia boxing trainer, when Jackson discovered the city government had been taking Social Security money due to them. The benefits came from their late adoptive mother, who worked as a nurse and had paid into the Social Security system for decades.
When Jackson applied for SNAP benefits, he was told he didn’t qualify because the children were already receiving Social Security payments, money Jackson had never seen despite being the kids’ legal guardian for months.
Jackson fought through the Philadelphia nonprofit Community Legal Services to get the money back: $9,070 per child.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Zaveonte said. “I had no idea there was anything for us. But the fact the money came from her, made it more meaningful.”
After turning 18, Zaveonte sought HVAC training, which has since helped him become a mechanic in the U.S. Army, where he is currently stationed in Germany.
“He’s doing great,” Jackson said. “I think it just felt good to him to have some money for a foundation because most of these kids, they don’t have that.”
Complicated and unclear laws
As lawmakers in Harrisburg consider changes, there are two main issues to address.
First, state law says counties do not have to spend public money until they exhaust all of a foster child’s own funds. Child advocates believe this policy and how it’s been interpreted conflicts with federal law requiring states to foot the bill, as well as a 2003 federal court decision that clarified foster children owe no debts for their care.
Not all lawmakers think the issue is cut and dry.
State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (R., Fayette) expressed mixed feelings in an October state House hearing. “The lack of notice and transparency is appalling,” she said. But she was concerned the money would be “almost a windfall then for a child who’s receiving these benefits.”
During the hearing, Grimm Krupa asked Harfeld, the attorney who has pushed for children to receive owed benefits in other states, if the government should be reimbursed.
Harfeld said the benefits are no different than a child receiving something like a trust fund. “The notion that we would tax them for their own involuntary stay in foster care is just a new level of chutzpah,” Harfeld said.
The second problem is figuring out how to administer a program that sets aside money for kids and dispenses it to them when they exit foster care.
Brian Bornman — executive director of Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators, which represents child welfare administrators around the state — argued that Pennsylvania should create an office to handle the bill’s provisions.
Delozier, the Cumberland County representative, said there are still administrative details to be worked out. She plans to introduce an updated version of the bill this legislative session.
Krajewski of Philadelphia said he crafted the bill with Delozier because it’s “the right thing to do,” but said he also understands it is a short-term investment to cut off the higher, long-term costs of providing more services in the future.
Across the country, other states are starting to crack down on the practice. In January, Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly banned the state’s Department for Children and Families from spending foster youth’s Social Security benefits.
A 2019 ruling in Alaska’s Superior Court found that the state violated the rights of foster kids when the Office of Children’s Services failed to notify youth or their lawyers about the money and the agency’s intention to take it.
Maryland enacted a law that requires a foster child’s lawyers to be notified when an agency applies to receive benefits. The law makes it easier for a child’s counsel to name a different payee and also requires a portion of those benefits to be set aside for the child. Krajewski and Delozier are planning for their bill, modeled after an Arizona law, to similarly require the state to set aside benefits for kids.
This story was produced in partnership with Spotlight PA. You can find this article there, as well as one explaining how this story was reported here.
