Lawmakers are renewing a push to end the practice of Pennsylvania counties diverting Social Security benefits owed to children in foster care into their own budgets, after new federal directives called on states to take action.
An investigation published last year by Resolve Philly and Spotlight PA that analyzed four years of data found at least 1,300 children in Pennsylvania have had money taken from them this way, to the tune of at least $15.7 million.
State Reps. Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia) and Sheryl Delozier (R., Cumberland) joined advocates and former foster youth at an April 13 event at the Pennsylvania Capitol to urge passage of HB 151, which would stop child-serving agencies from intercepting these funds and start conserving them for youth to use after they exit care.
The revived effort to pass the legislation, which they co-authored, follows a new directive issued in December by the federal Administration for Children and Families, which urged governors to “ensure these earned benefits are no longer taken from foster youth and are instead preserved to support them as they transition out of state care.”
The bill has bipartisan support, with three Republicans signed on as co-sponsors and 28 Democrats.
"It’s a bipartisan issue,” Delozier said at the Capitol event. “Not one that’s defined by Republicans or Democrats, urban or rural. This is an issue that affects children in the foster care system no matter where they live."
Supporters of HB 151 argue it’s needed not only to comply with this federal guidance but as a practical intervention. The state Department of Human Services told Spotlight PA the Shapiro administration is working with lawmakers to "create a standardized statewide process."
“Legislation is necessary to ensure Pennsylvania’s counties, who administer child welfare and foster programs locally, can uniformly implement a process to ensure that children and youth in foster care get Social Security survivor benefits available to them,” DHS spokesperson Ali Fogarty said in an email response to questions.
Voluminous research shows that young people transitioning out of foster care face increased risks of housing instability, joblessness, and more.
Bree Hood has firsthand experience of those challenges. She left the foster care system after turning 18 to avoid the stress of living in a group home.
“Being in the system after my parents died was tough, and I didn’t have the proper support,” said Bree Hood, a youth advocate at Juvenile Law Center. “Living in a group home I was surrounded by strangers and people who didn’t have my best interests at heart.”
Three years after leaving foster care, she started receiving unexplained checks that she believes stemmed from survivor payments owed to her after her parent’s deaths.
“Nobody ever made me aware of the support I was entitled to when I was in foster care,” she said, but the checks helped her pay for food, rent, and the basics of life.
She added: “People need to be held responsible for basically stealing money from the most vulnerable youth.”
Krajewski and Delozier proposed their bill after Resolve Philly and The Inquirer found that Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services still harvested social security money from kids in foster care, despite a city council ordinance requiring them to conserve the funds.
A separate Resolve Philly investigation with Spotlight PA in 2025 found that nearly every county in the state took Social Security money intended for children in their care. The newsrooms also found that youth were often not directly notified their money had been taken, suggesting a possible due process violation; and that the documentation counties kept suggested some of them were also out of step with federal policies requiring them to tie any use of children’s funds to their individual needs.
Counties and child welfare administrators have historically defended the practice as lawful and necessary to offset the costs of care.
Reform advocates counter that, under federal law, youth in foster care are not required to pay for their own room and board, which would make the practice engaged in for decades by states and counties around the country, including Pennsylvania, illegal.
The move toward conserving that money for the children in foster care reflects a national trend, as more states move to bar the practice.
“Since Philadelphia’s ordinance, dozens of states across all political divides have flocked to curb or end this cruel and shortsighted practice,” says attorney Amy Harfeld, who’s led successful efforts to end these policies in other states. “Now Pennsylvania stands on the precipice of joining them. If this bill passes, thousands of disabled and orphaned foster youth will be able to use their benefits as intended: to cover their unmet needs during and after foster care.”
The bill’s backers include advocacy and legal organizations that work with children and families across Pennsylvania, as well as former foster youth who say access to conserved benefits could have reduced their financial strain and improved their stability while they were in care and when they transitioned to adulthood.