States pressured to let foster kids keep checks | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- For decades, states have routinely applied for Social Security survivor and disability benefits on behalf of foster children and then used that money to help cover the costs of foster care services. But that's beginning to change, under pressure from child advocates who contend the practice is both immoral and detrimental to foster children because it exhausts funds that could have helped them transition to adulthood.