Minnesota Governor and 2024 Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Waltz on the primary day of the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago on August 19, 2024.
Charlie Triballo | AFP | Getty Pictures
Governor of Minnesota Tim Waltz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice chairman on the Democratic Nationwide Conference on Wednesday night time.
In his speech, Walz credited a selected supply of assist for serving to his household get to the place they’re as we speak — Social Safety survivor benefits.
His father died of lung most cancers when Waltz was 19, leaving “a mountain of medical debt,” Waltz stated. Social Safety advantages allowed his household, together with his mom and youthful brother, to “stay with dignity,” he stated recently published on social media.
“Thank God for Social Safety for survivors,” Waltz stated throughout his speech Wednesday night time.
“Many kids … do not declare their survivor advantages”
For 3.7 million children obtain Social Safety advantages, in accordance with the most recent information from the Social Safety Administration.
Youngsters can obtain advantages if they’re single and underneath 18; between 18 and 19 and are full-time college students in grade 12 or beneath; and 18 or older with a incapacity that started earlier than age 22.
If a working mother or father dies, 98 out of 100 kids within the US can obtain Social Safety, agency ratings. Month-to-month checks are based mostly on a deceased mother or father’s earnings.
The typical month-to-month youngster survivor profit was $1,103 as of July, with greater than 2 million kids receiving these checks, in accordance with the Social Safety Administration.
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But households should not at all times conscious that they’re eligible for this monetary assist.
“Many kids throughout the nation should not claiming their survivor advantages,” Social Safety Commissioner Martin O’Malley stated on the Nationwide Social Safety Academy an event in Washington, DC in June.
Information reveals that about half of orphaned kids within the U.S. don’t obtain the Social Safety advantages they’re entitled to, in accordance with Joel Mulheron, founder and government director of Evermore, a nonpartisan nonprofit targeted on enhancing the lives of bereaved folks.
“These are … kids who might doubtlessly be lifted out of poverty on account of accessing this profit,” Mulheron stated.
The Social Safety Administration is working to grasp who these households are and develop extra focused approaches to succeed in them, O’Malley stated on the NASI occasion in June.
Thus far, these efforts embrace sending data letters to households with potential candidates, launching a new web page on survivor advantages and dealing with states and communities to assist increase consciousness of these advantages, in accordance with the company. In Utah, for instance, a verify field has been added to loss of life reporting kinds to point when the deceased had a minor youngster.
How kids can qualify for Social Safety
Christopher Hopefitch | The Picture Financial institution | Getty Pictures
Greater than half of kids receiving Social Safety checks had a mother or father who labored and paid taxes in this system, in accordance with the Social Safety Administration. These kids can obtain as much as 75% of the deceased mother or father’s primary profit.
To be eligible for survivor advantages, kids should not stay with or obtain monetary assist from a mother or father, in accordance with the Social Safety Administration. As well as, it’s not vital for the kid’s mother and father to be married.
In some conditions, surviving mother and father who care for kids underneath 16 may be eligible for advantages.
There are different methods kids can qualify for advantages.
For instance, they’ll additionally obtain advantages if they’ve a residing mother or father who’s retired or disabled and eligible for Social Safety. These kids can obtain as much as half of their mother and father’ full advantages.
The quantity of advantages that kids obtain could also be adjusted based mostly on a maximum benefit to the familya restrict on how a lot a household can obtain monthly based mostly on the employee’s earnings file. The formulation for this varies relying on whether or not the funds relate to incapacity advantages or retirement and inheritance.
“You don’t need anybody to lose any advantages”
When somebody dies, the funeral director might ship the household to Social Safety, particularly since there could also be $255 lump sum death benefit obtainable, stated Jim Blair, vice chairman of Premier Social Safety Consulting and a former Social Safety administrator.
At the moment, widows and widowers may be knowledgeable about the advantages obtainable to them in addition to their kids, he stated. Nonetheless, it’s doable for some conditions to fall via the cracks.
Youngsters might not be capable to entry the advantages they’re eligible for in the event that they transfer to a different guardian, for instance, a lot of whom cannot reply all of Social Safety’s questions, Mulheron stated. Households additionally might not be capable to entry advantages due to immigration points, missed deadlines or administrative errors when making use of, she stated.
It might assist the Social Safety Administration make youngster profit functions extra accessible on-line, Mulheron stated.
“You don’t need anybody to lose any advantages as a result of that is what the profit is for,” Blair stated.
“Should you assume you may even have an inkling there is perhaps one thing payable, name and ask,” he stated.
The Social Safety Administration may be reached at 1-800-772-1213. When making use of for youngster advantages, the company may require present a toddler’s start certificates, proof of start or adoption, social safety numbers of the mother or father and youngster, and, when acceptable, a mother or father’s loss of life certificates or medical proof of the kid’s incapacity.
