Social Security disability benefits are certainly not limited to adults, and children of eligible beneficiaries may be eligible for a monthly stipend to help offset living costs and defray the financial impact of their medical condition.
According to recent data, as many as nine percent of all Social Security beneficiaries in 2014 were children – a number amounting to close to 6.4 million individuals. This data includes both children receiving benefits directly as well as those who benefitted indirectly from benefits advanced to an adult charged with their care. Children eligible for direct Social Security benefits include:
- Those whose parent or guardian passed away, leaving them as a surviving dependent;
- The surviving dependent of an injured worker who passed away;
- Children of retirees.
Indirectly, millions of children benefit from Social Security each day due to the fact their caregiver or family member receives monthly financial support. According to a study conducted by the Center for Global Policy Solutions, the staggering number of children benefitting from Social Security income are actually receiving much-needed support to avoid imminent impoverishment. For instance, the study found that although 40 percent of African American children currently live in poverty, the figure would like jump to 58 percent absent Social Security benefits. Likewise, the 28 percent of Latino children living in poverty would likely jump to nearly 45 percent without the benefits – figures which are just too astounding to ignore.
In a statement by the Center for Global Policy Solutions, “[w]e often talk about Social Security reform in the context of retirement….The fact of the matter is that skews our understanding of who the program serves. Social Security serves people of all ages, from birth to death – and the number of dependent children is too often ignored.”
With Social Security facing a certain solvency problem by 2034, lawmakers are beginning to work toward solutions to help support this much-needed social program. And, as the figures show, it is not just aging retirees who depend on these benefits – it is Americans of all ages.
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