Put that darn money in an account for the foster child to be able to receive it once they turn 18 and or age out of the system. What an F’d up system!

The fact that many of these young people wind up living on the streets while the state takes their money is just plain evil!

Our whole foster care system is broken.

I have been talking about this for years. I was in the foster care system in 1974 after my mother died....I saw NO social security, do not know if she had a life insurance policy or anything else. The social security and military benefits theft from minors orphaned and sent into foster care is just the beginning of what needs to be investigated and every single child that has been stolen from should receive payment in full with interest no matter how long ago it was!

This is call stealing and is a crime. All involved need to be held accountable. This is a form of child abuse. This needs to change for the future of all foster children.

So many foster parents use the checks for themselves so survivor benefits should go in a trust until age 18 when kids are kicked out of foster care.

These officials should be held accountable, jailed and fined to pay back all they took!

I'm so glad that this is making national news. Can we also talk about how Medicaid takes money from disabled adults that received benefits as children when they turn 18? If you qualified for Medicaid as a child, the chance that you have tons of money as an adult is pretty impractical.

This is child abuse and wrong on every level. This breaks my heart. I am so proud of these beautiful souls. Shame on our system for allowing them to suffer even more than they had already. Bless are those that stand up, and protect our future. 😔✌️

😮😮 It ain't no loophole its corruption...the children should sue....

What a shame! when I think I can’t be surprised at what this government does I learn this.

Foster care system is so broken, unfair and provide so many challenges to foster care children.

Great report! This information needs to be repeated over & over again until change comes about.

I had a girl in one of my core classes as a junior that aged out & had to drop out. I think about her so often because it could have been me. Absolutely sick how they take their benefits to do what!? Those funds could be provide housing , tuition , etc.

Horrendous injustice to all people who this happens to.

Give.. that..money..back ..all of it..every State give that money back...everything.. every frickin cent!

In Nevada when a family member takes a child they don't receive foster care reimbursement unless they are licensed foster parents. The relative tries to keep the child in the family but receives no support.

Bless this young woman who persevered.

My boyfriends daughter was in state custody for a few months. They have the foster parent clothing vouchers, the foster mother bought her own daughter new clothes and gave my boyfriends daughter hand me down dresses in November…. And the state said they couldn’t do anything about it. Was despicable.

I am going to take in two older children later this year. God help me with the issue.

Thank you for shedding light on this 🙏🏻

Ex foster kids have entered the chat: This exact thing happen to me. My father got killed i went to foster care..they proceeded to steal over 80k over the course of 10 years or so. When i "aged out" at 17 because i had a kid and graduated hs early..my balance of Ssi around 4k. That, my friends was 30 years ago. I see thievery never changes within our govt.🤡🙄good grief.

It's bad enough generations of kids are growing up lost! Depriving benefits from foster children doesn't help!

None of the 50 states really "care" for these children. In fact, they barely "care" for them at all.

lining their own pockets again...sickening.

Not to undermine Sunday Morning's influence, but maybe CBS has to air this report on 60 Minutes to get some justice to these children - the same way they influenced a change with the Social Security overpayements matter.

They are supposed to provide a home and pay for college and they advertise it on their websites. All lies..

They do the same thing with child support! If you apply for ANY assistance like foodstamps, daycare assistance, or even medical coverage for your kids - you are FORCED to file a child support enforcement claim. If you ever receive the payments from the other parent, the state takes a massive percentage of that money. They will take it before it will be deposited to your account. I never got a single penny of child support, considering it was based on the minimum wages being $5.15, for two children, the monthly payment was only around $240 per month. For the 15 years he was in prison, the back-pay racked up to over $40,000. Had he started to make payments for the back pay, I would not have seen it - the state would have taken it. He died last summer before I could get any case together.

All to give rich ppl tax cuts.

Thank you for bringing attention to this shameful practice. Stealing from orphans is one of the most vile crimes.

Just disgusting. Simply disgusting. This country is a double edged greedy sword.

They will let ANYBODY be a foster parent and get a check SMH especially in Mississippi

Thank you for covering this.

Wow for years taking money from the kids. What kind of system are we in again 🤔?

Pro life people pro life people HERE'S WHOLE FORMED HUMANS that need your help!! Yall do all this protesting and legislation but completely ignore true people who need help

SICK 🤯🤯🤯 unbelievable!!!! I worked in foster care & didn’t even know this SMH

That’s a heart wrenching story. I work in this same exact agency in my state. We are very very conscience of our youths and the money they receive. All money’s they receive go into a trust for them to have with their care ends. The dividends they receive from go into trust and if they have native corporate benefits they also get those. We make sure our youths have the money and also Independent Living services through the age of 21. Meaning they’ll pay for them to get a license and help to find housing etc. I wish other states did the same. That’s so sad. Indidently your map of states with laws excluded my state. I’m so glad.

As you treat the least amount you is as you treat me. No one is less than a orphan.

This is beyond cruel!

I'm highly sympathetic to the needs of foster children, especially those aging out of the system. I've worked in the FC system and taught child welfare policy. I've adopted from FC. This isn't so much an issue of who gets or how the child's VA survivor benefits are used. It's more an issue of what are we doing to support ANY young person aging out of FC. If the child was being raised by a surviving parent or relative, that adult would be the child's rep payee and expected to use the VA funds for child's needs while growing up. The child doesn't get the funds directly. Any policy shift would also have to be applied fairly to a veteran's surviving children raised by surviving parent, sibling or relative. It would be unfair to surviving parent, sibling or relative to expect them to set aside those funds until child is of age, while expecting the adult to bear full cost of raising them And other kids in FC don't don't "get it for free". Their parents are expected to pay child support in accordance with their income and assetts. Many simply don't have any income/assetts. If a non veteran's child gets a life insurance benefit, that money would be expected to be used for benefit of the child, no matter who is raising child, whether family or FC. Foster kids have special status when it comes to college financial aid. They are considered a family of "one". Any assetts, i.e. VA funds set aside for them, would actually count against their overall financial aid package. So, assiging VA survivor benefits to the child for later use might actually be counterproductive in the long run. The REAL issue is that we aren't adequately helping many of the young people aging out of foster care. And perhaps aren't properly advising relatives of what's available to them if they were to step up to raise the child. While well intended, this news story doesn't give the whole picture.

My fear is that we’ve allowed the oligarchs and plutocrats get out of control in this country .. Trump is just one of them .. But what’s prevented an oligarch from buying the government .. Nothing that I’ve seen so far indicates we have done something to keep these in check at all .. this is why I love the way other countries treat their people .. sure they don’t have some of the stuff we have but they sure as heck don’t allow their oligarchs to rule over everyone and unconscionable damage .. Other countries know best in how to deal with them than we do .. but I think our people are waking up to the issue at hand

That is a shame that the kids didn’t know this ahead of time. The state took their money and children aged out the system became homeless.

As a foster kid i wasn't allowed to learn to drive because they couldn't insured me because legal guardianship issues

I left foster care w no ability to swim work or know how to drive. Then was kicked out at 18 w no skills or high school diploma. My foster parents took over 1000 dollars a month and I didn't even have tampons ..

They do the same with seniors. They took the house and savings when placed in a nursing home.

This is so disgusting!

These kids need their money right away not in no “funds” no matter how young they are. And the social workers should do their due diligence to help them manage their finances properly so that they live happy and healthier lives.

They do this with tanf/fitap benifits too, except they'll take any kid and/or siblings child support if you ever receive it, to pay them back... There's similarities to these loopholes...

When the children are 18 they should have there own checks

Can I get back pay? When I went back to foster care after my mom died they took the death benefits I was getting.

This upset me so much!

Absolutely unacceptable! They should be entitled to the arrears that they are owed. Treat it like child support or spousal support. That money is rightfully theirs!

In most all government benefits programs you have to apply for benefits "you maybe entitled to." It is to help offset the cost of paid by the state for there care.

This is just disgusting. They didn’t even pretend to put the money back into the system. That money could have saved lives!

Our country is going backwards.. I'm actually kinda scared of what the future holds. I'm normally a go with the flow take it as it comes kinda person. Now i feel more paranoid and unsure of my future.

The churches need to step up and reach out to agencies to foster children. They need to educate their congregations and ask them to foster God’s children.

That $ should automatically be put in a trust for the child for them to use when they are 18. Imagine having to be able to have their post high school education paid for? Or the ability to put a down payment on a home?

I keep telling y’all politicians are evil

That is criminal!!!!

They was trying to keep me in falter care until I was 21 in Louisiana for what I heard it was because they was getting a lot of money

This money should have been given to them definitely when they aged out. Also, they should automatically be able to get a college education with room and board provided. This is ridiculous. I wish I had enough money to open a home for those who have to leave foster care. This is heartbreaking.

Just criminal stealing from children

I hear this alot

We have failed in whole as a country, children were never meant to be put in systems/adopted!! The parents/families who allow this to happen will be held accountable!!! It's just very sad & evil!!!

If they emancipate as a minor they can apply for those benefits themselves. if they have a good attorney that will fight for them, but they don’t want them to know that little secret. Depends on the circumstances and their age if they have siblings. to go through the system like that is horrible. I know because I’m speaking from personal experience and that was a long time ago.

These kids have Education benefits too. This sucks!!!!!😞😡

This is stealing and is a felony and should be prosecuted as such. These are the real important matters that I wished congress would argue about and also making citizens who were already in this country whole before offering aid to others and debit cards and housing.

Absolutely shocking 😢

why should tax payers have to pay? and there should be sliding scale payments for families with living parents....no payment for lower income, to full payment for upper middle class parents

And this money goes to people never pay taxes and retired???SSI ???

Oh we tried to tell you people about this over 30 years ago. Keep your heads stuck in the sand

This system is really messed up.

the system is to traffic them. not to protect them.

It"s more than 25k children...

Replacing the voices with the reporter’s voice didn’t save time and took away the voices’ power. Like interrupting, the voice of that person believes they are more important? What can we do? Protest to governors? Protest to Congress representatives and senators?

How they heck she do online classes in a tent??

Interesting how congress can agree to give money away to migrants, Ukraine and Israel yet they cannot come up with a bill to help these kids.

This is just wrong! Imagine if foster kids, who age out, had a nest age to help them get established? I find it criminal that these young people are basically “kicked to the curb” once they are no longer eligible to be in foster care.

He need to get a lawyer.

There's a lot of bull$hit loopholes that allows officials, politicians, and the elites criminal actions, without any consequences..

This is heartbreaking and wrong in every way.

Gavin Newsom vetos the bill to help these foster kids in California and once again proves the type of man he is. Remember this when he runs for national office.

Listen to this I saw on the NEWS 5 in Tennessee that the LGBTQI could NOT foster a child. I found out from someone in Nashville that the report was NOT true

What can we do to stop this!!!! This is awful!!, this government is so corrupt and evil 😢😢😢

The system is a joke 😢??

Society shouldn't foot the bill through taxes. If they want to keep the money, reopen the orphanages so society isn't stuck with more taxes. We might be losing our social security in a few years due to mismanagement of our money so who's going to bail us out when the funds go dry

How sad

The evil people in charge always exploit the most vulnerable.

foster children usually battle a lot of mental health issues including compound stress disorders and relationship issues because they did not have nurturing environments or from neglect growing up. As adults it makes functioning day to day even harder. statistics say foster kids are more likely to commit crimes, not graduate, or abuse and be addicted to substances and die younger. these young people are exceptions to the rule= sheer perseverance.

Do you mean self serving accounts?

This is so messed up.

Check disabled foster kids. They, too, take their funds under the guise to hold onto the money for age out status or adoption. After adoption their money is still held because they are of age but can not question it because they are disabled. That is unless they have advocate and a avg of 5 yrs to solve. You'll still only be able to get 2 to 3 yrs of back dues. Whose helping the disabled?

TAKE IT AWAY FROM SOCIAL SECURITY AND PERMIT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OFFER IT ONLY THROUGH A TAX RETURN BENEFIT!

Some foster kids they're parents are not dead! They're lying!

Mmmm... in my county, it pays for the foster care.

If that's the case then social security DONT BOTHER OFFERING IT THEN IF PEOPLE ARE STEALING IT!! Take it off the social security list of benefits..

Because you can't sell/enslave them anymore...

The foster system was designed to defend the rights of parents

It doesn't surprise me to be honest. They do the same thing to people who get disability checks, and people who get food stamps - if you go to like a rehab for instance,they take it. Just like for people in rehab, this money could really benefit them when they are on the other side of this. This is sick. These kids deserve access to this money. It could help them pay for college 😢

Or funnel the survivor benefit through child support accounts only!