Social Security and Safety Net Programs

The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services has directed all governors to end the long‑standing practice of seizing Social Security survivor benefits from children in foster care to reimburse the cost of their care. In a letter sent in early December, HHS assistant secretary Alex Adams — who oversees federal child‑welfare policy — calls the practice an "orphan tax" and says there is "no moral justification" for making orphans "pay their own way," given that states are legally obligated to provide foster care. Survivor benefits, averaging about $1,100 a month, are paid to children whose working parents have died, and advocates argue those funds should be conserved to help youth transition out of care with money for housing, education or transportation. Adams, who previously stopped the practice when he led Idaho’s health agency, frames the new directive as a national standard change, building on state‑level reforms that followed a 2021 NPR/Marshall Project investigation revealing that many states quietly captured these checks. The move could significantly alter foster‑care financing in multiple states and, if enforced, shift millions of dollars back toward individual foster youths rather than state child‑welfare budgets.