First Star, and the Child Advocacy Institute (CAI) support this initiative.  Thorough background information is found in the full text of The Fleecing of Our Foster Children.

For children with disabilities and those who have lost one or both of their parents, the Foster Children Self Support Act requires states serving as representative payee to use the Social Security benefits of those children for their immediate and future needs rather than as a state revenue source. According to the Congressional Research Service, over $150 million in federal benefits, including OASDI benefits that children are entitled to because their deceased parent paid into the Social Security system, are intercepted by child welfare agencies each year.¹¹⁶ As explained previously, states do a poor job of using children's funds in a manner that truly serves the children's best interests. Many children (and their attorneys or GALs) have no knowledge that they are eligible for or receiving these federal benefits; the agency simply applies on their behalf and starts receiving the funds as the child's representative payee. As a result of how the benefits of these vulnerable children are used, scarce assets that belong to the child are not available to them as they transition to adulthood and try to achieve independence.

The Foster Children Self Support Act will safeguard some of these children's Social Security benefits, creating a basic safety net for when they age out of foster care. Just as parents work hard to raise children who will become self sufficient, we should work hard to prepare foster youth to have the same capabilities. Key provisions of this bill would:

• Require that all foster children are screened for Social Security (both Title II and XVI) eligibility while in care, and require child welfare agencies to notify the child's attorney and/or guardian ad litem;
• Require child welfare agencies to notify the child's attorney or guardian ad litem (and the child if he/she is 14 or older) of the child's eligibility and receipt for Social Security benefits while in care;
• Develop and implement a "Plan for Achieving Self Support" that is specific to each child receiving Social Security benefits. The plan will be designed in collaboration with the agency, the child (on an age-appropriate basis), and the child's advocates with the goal of using the child's Social Security benefits to meet the child's current and future needs;
• Create an Individual Development Account for each child receiving benefits, so that these Social Security assets will be conserved to assist the youth secure housing, education, or job training after they emancipate from care;
• Restrict state agencies from using a child's benefits as a general revenue source;
• Exclude conserved funds as well as personal earnings, inherited assets, and civil judgments from the $2,000 resource limit under the SSI program.