In October of 2022, more than 3.8 million children received Social Security benefits because one or both of their parents are disabled, retired, or deceased. These benefit payments to children total more than $2.6 billion every month.
Sadly, many children don’t get the benefits for which they are eligible, writes Devin Carroll. Most people don’t know about the qualifications and rules for this special benefit, so they don’t know to apply for the children in their lives.
Who Is Eligible for Social Security Benefits for Children?
A child who is your biological child, adopted child, or dependent stepchild is eligible for children’s benefits if:
- you become disabled
- you retire
- you die
- and, the child is:
- unmarried, and
- under age 18, or
- 18 or 19 if a full-time student in secondary school through grade 12 (see note below), or
- 18 or older and disabled with a disability that started before age 22.
Note: A 2022 report by the Office of the Inspector General found that the Social Security Administration erroneously terminated the benefits of students who turned 18.
How Much Is The Benefit?
If you become disabled or retire, your qualified child is eligible for up to 50% of your full retirement age benefit.
If you have kids at home, and are thinking about filing for Social Security, filing early before full retirement age (RFA) could make more sense because your children cannot collect a Social Security benefit until you file.
Consider the difference in lifetime benefit amounts for a couple with the following circumstances.
Roger is 62 and his wife is 46. They have two kids at home, ages 8 & 10. Roger is financially well off enough to stop working and can be flexible on what age he begins to collect Social Security.
If Roger waits until his full retirement age, he’ll get $2,000 per month. If he files now, he’ll only get $1,500 per month. He ran the numbers and figured out that if he lived to 90, he’d receive an additional $70,000 in benefits for delaying filing until 66 instead of filing at 62.
For most people, this math shows that it makes sense to delay receiving benefits. However, this does not account for the benefits paid to the children. While the children are eligible for benefits based upon Roger’s retirement, the kids cannot get benefits until he files. Roger’s family would be able to collect thousands of dollars more in lifetime benefits if Roger files early and turns on the benefits for his children.
Here’s how…
If you run Roger’s full retirement age benefit through the family benefit calculator, you’ll arrive at a maximum benefit of approximately $3,500 . If Roger files at 62 he’ll receive $1,500 and each of his children would be eligible for $1,000 in children’s benefits. That additional $2,000 per month ($1,000 for each of the children) is only available if Roger files for Social Security.
Whenever a minor child receives a Social Security benefit, the Social Security Administration pays the benefit to a representative payee or a parent (or legal guardian) who is responsible for managing the benefits on behalf of the child.
Before a recent law change, all representative payees were required to file an annual report. However, due to a recent change in the law, the SSA no longer requires most parents or guardians to complete an annual Representative Payee Report.
Even though the SSA doesn’t require an annual reporting, they do have the following cautioning language. “All payees are responsible for keeping records of how the payments are spent or saved, and making all records available for review if requested by SSA.”
If you haven’t spent all the money, the SSA will require you to send it back to them when your child turns 18. This is because your child is considered an adult in their eyes and they will begin to deal directly with them.
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