By Patricia Jones
Alliance Community Task Force: Creating Opportunity
I recently listened to an interview with Nebraska Senator Megan Hunt about how children in foster care often are entitled to Social Security benefits, but those benefits are taken by states, under the guise of using those funds to pay for the expenses of caring for these youth. She introduced a legislative resolution in 2021 to find out the extent of this happening in Nebraska.
Most children in foster care do not qualify for Social Security benefits. About 10% do qualify; death of a parent or a disability entitles them to benefits. Many are diagnosed with mental health issues like anxiety, depression, or PTSD, often related to the reason they are in foster care. This diagnosis also qualifies them for Social Security.
In 2021 NPR broadcast a series on this issue. They found that in at least 36 states foster care agencies comb through their case files to find kids entitled to these benefits, then apply to Social Security to become each child's financial representative, a process permitted by federal regulations. Most states pay an outside firm to handle this. Once approved, the agencies take the money, almost always without notifying the children, their loved ones or lawyers.
This includes Nebraska.
Foster care expenses are paid for by taxpayers. In Nebraska, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) oversees foster care.
State agencies like DHHS take kids' Social Security money as reimbursement for the cost of foster care, to recoup what the state has paid for each child's room and board. This has been happening since the 1980's. Each year the state receives about $3,000,000.
Most people, including Sen. Hunt, believe this money should not be used for taxpayer relief. Instead, it should be placed in a fund to allow that foster youth to get established when he/she ages out of the system at age 19.
In Nebraska, about 200 children age out of the foster care system each year. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports 21%-46% of children who age out are homeless by age 26.
How does Nebraska help foster youth make the transition to living on their own? The Bridge to Independence Program (b2i), established in 2014 and managed by DHHS, helps. Young adults who aged out of foster care will receive housing support in the form of monthly stipends (payments). The amount of the stipend will be the same as the monthly foster care maintenance payment from when the young person was still in foster care.
To remain eligible for b2i, youth must be working towards a productive adulthood in one of these ways: completing a high school diploma or attaining a GED, taking classes at least part time at a college or vocational school program, working at least 80 hours a month, engaging in an activity designed to allow the young adult to address barriers to workforce participation, or be medically incapable of the above activities. Young adults must also meet with their Independence Coordinator monthly and be permanent residents of the State of Nebraska, unless they reside out of state through an Interstate Compact Placement Agreement.
Senator Hunt would like to see Social Security funds allocated to a specific youth be put in an account for that youth, money to use after aging out of the system. Instead, the Nebraska Legislature agreed to let youth and their families know that the funds are going to DHHS to provide for their care.