My father died of cancer when I was thirteen. He left behind five children. I was the oldest.
Within a year, my four siblings and I were placed in foster care in Michigan. We were not warned. We were not consulted. We were thirteen, eleven, nine, seven, and five years old. On the day we entered care, the state of Michigan quietly applied to the Social Security Administration to become the representative payee for my survivor benefits. Unlike most foster kids, I knew — and I've spent years since fighting to end the practice.
Every month for the next three years, the check my father had earned for me was redirected. Over $18,000 in total, silently intercepted to reimburse the state for the cost of my own foster care. Care the state was already required, by federal and state law, to pay for. It would not have made me rich. It would have meant a security deposit. A car. The first semester of a degree. A foundation for a future.
Most foster kids never find out. By the time they age out, the money is gone.
I went on to graduate from the University of Michigan. And I started asking questions. The questions led to the Congressional Research Service report. The CRS report led to a $179 million figure for one year. The figure led to the rest of you: tens of thousands of children, just like me, whose money has been quietly taken in the name of double-billing the same care the state was already paying for.
I testified before the Michigan Senate. I testified, virtually, before the Kansas House. My story has been carried by CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, The Detroit News, and The Marshall Project. In May of this year, I sat across the table from Assistant Secretary Alex Adams of the U.S. Administration for Children & Families. He committed the federal government to ending this practice for orphans and for disabled foster youth both — and ACF is actively working on the SSI side as well.
That is the breakthrough. It is also not the finish line. Executive commitments can be reversed. A permanent fix needs Congress.
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