A new report shows 49 states, including Nebraska, are seizing thousands of dollars in Social Security, veterans and other benefits from children in foster care.

State foster-care agencies collected more than $165 million from children in 2018.

Sarah Helvey, child welfare director with Nebraska Appleseed, said youths who age out of the system tend to have higher rates of homelessness, lower educational attainment and rates of employment — whereas having access to those benefits could help them transition into self-sufficient adults.

“So when they age out, they have access to that funding to help them get a positive start in life, rather than being used to compensate the state or reimburse the state for the cost of their room and board while in foster care,” she said.

State agencies have defended the practice, noting that the benefits help recover some of the cost of caring for kids, even though federal law says children’s Social Security benefits were not intended to be a funding stream for foster care.

State Sen. Megan Hunt, an Omaha Democrat recently called for an interim study to see how widespread the practice is in Nebraska, partly in response to the report by The Marshall Project and National Public Radio.

Most state child-services agencies surveyed in the report say it’s legal for them to apply to the Social Security administration to become the financial representative for foster children’s benefits.

Helved said there are other funding streams meant to support foster care available, and that Nebraska currently is leaving a lot of federal money the state is entitled to on the table.

“And so if we improve some of our policies and procedures, then we could be getting more of that right funding stream for foster care in Nebraska, rather than taking from foster children’s SSI benefits,” Helved said.

In many cases, children are not informed that their benefits have been taken.

Youth advocates are calling for agencies to at least notify every child in foster care and their lawyer, if they have one, that the state has taken their benefits.

The report notes that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from taking your possessions without a chance to contest it.

This article was produced by the Nebraska News Connection, a news service that is part of the national Public News Service. Find additional coverage from NNC at publicnewsservice.org.