Each year, members of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG) gather to discuss strategies to help America’s bereaved children, teens, and youth. Policymakers in Washington, DC – particularly those interested in Social Security – should pay attention to results of this year’s recently-concluded meeting in Kansas City.
New data presented at the conference indicate a surprising number of bereaved young people in the country. Estimates from the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model (CBEM), developed by the JAG Institute, indicate there are currently 5.9 million individuals under age 25 that have lost a parent to death. Further, by age 25, 1 in 8 young people will experience the death of a parent.
Policymakers should pay attention to the numbers coming out of the NACG conference. Why? Labor market outcomes are poorer, later in life, for bereaved children and changes to Social Security policy and program management could improve those outcomes.
Tabulations from the Survey of Income and Program Participation for persons during prime working years (ages 30-49) reveal interesting patterns for earnings, childhood bereavement, and educational attainment. Median income from earnings for those bereaved during childhood is only about 77 percent of median earnings for the non-bereaved. Bereaved individuals are decidedly less likely to hold a college or advanced degree (31.7 percent) than non-bereaved individuals (45.2 percent).
Social Security currently pays survivor benefits for children until age 18, but prior to 1982 the program also paid benefits through age 21 if a child beneficiary was attending college. Research has found that ending the provision of college student benefits depressed college attendance among individuals bereaved in childhood (here and here).
One policy response to relatively poor later life outcomes among bereaved children is to reinstate Social Security college student benefits. While legislation has occasionally been introduced in Congress to do this, the political prospects for standalone legislation are small. However, in the next several years, Congress will have to address the longer-term solvency issues with Social Security and restoring student benefits could easily be a “sweetener” to any solvency package.
The more immediate need for bereaved children is improved administration of the Social Security program. Child survivor benefits are substantial enough to keep families afloat following the death of a working parent (the average monthly per child payment is currently about $1,100). However, numbers presented at the NACG conference indicate only about 40 percent of bereaved children under age 18 are receiving support from the Social Security program.
The benefit gap is almost certainly due to a variety of reasons, but lack of knowledge and difficulty accessing child benefits, no doubt, play a role.
Some states, such as Utah, have begun to explore ways to close the benefit gap. Because of the efforts of Governor Spencer Cox, Utah now allows for death certificates to record whether a deceased person was a parent or guardian of a child under 18. Utah then connects these children with United Way representatives to help bereaved families learn about Social Security and other resources.
The innovative partnership in Utah was organized by the Children's Collaborative for Healing and Support and the New York Life Foundation and reflects the good will of many organizations to help these families, including funeral directors who have embraced the new “checkbox” on death certificates that identifies the presence of a bereaved child.
Bereavement center professionals who make up NACG’s membership have also stepped up efforts to connect families with Social Security by distributing fact sheets on the program and letting families know about benefits.
What should the federal response be to the benefit gap? One efficient approach is to support the work already underway at the state and local level. The timing for federal partnership may be right because the Social Security Administration (SSA) has a new, Senate-confirmed commissioner, Frank Bisignano. Commissioner Bisignano has spoken passionately about his father’s experience as an orphan. As the head of SSA, he no doubt can appreciate the program’s ability to help stabilize a family’s situation following the death of a parent.
SSA can take simple steps through meetings, data sharing, outreach, and research to leverage the good work of state and local organizations. To illustrate, Utah has collected new data identifying bereaved children and SSA could conduct outreach to these families and assist with benefit applications. Such a partnership would encourage other states to collect needed data and partner with the federal government.
In addition, many organizations simply need technical assistance from SSA rather than resources. Meetings between agency officials and organizations representing funeral directors, bereavement centers, and others regarding the application process and eligibility rules would allow organizations to be more effective in outreach to families.
These discussions could also improve the agency’s business process. For example, unlike other types of Social Security benefits, there is no online application for survivor benefits for children. Bisignano has promised to improve SSA’s troubled phone system, and, regarding service delivery channels, he promised Congress that SSA would meet people “where they want to be met – whether in person in field offices, on the web, or on the phone.”
Bereavement centers are the “boots on the ground” and could help SSA understand the circumstances of bereaved families and, consequently, how service delivery could be improved. Of note, Bisignano has said “I'm happy to work with anybody who can help us.”
Finally, regarding both policy and program management issues, SSA has a large research budget and statistical reporting infrastructure. President Trump recently requested $91 million in research funds for SSA for fiscal year 2026. The funding request is to support a broad range of research, including research on ways to improve service delivery.
Congress, through the appropriation process, should ensure some of these funds are devoted to identifying service improvements for bereaved families. Additionally, to support future policy discussions, SSA should be encouraged to fund data and studies that document the economic, social, and educational outcomes of bereaved children.
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