Across the country, states are finally ending a practice that advocates have spent years calling out: taking Social Security survivor benefits from orphaned children in foster care and using the money to pay for the cost of their care. In the past six months alone, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Indiana have all moved to stop the orphan tax. West Virginia has not. And the orphan tax West Virginia continues to collect is coming directly out of the pockets of some of the most vulnerable kids in the country.
As of June 2026, West Virginia remains one of only 11 states still intercepting these benefits—money that belongs to children, earned by parents who paid into Social Security and then died. This Social Security funding is not a rounding error in the state budget. For the individual children it affects, it can mean the difference between leaving foster care with something and leaving with nothing.
When a parent dies after having worked and paid into Social Security, their child is entitled to a monthly survivor benefit. In most states, that money now stays with the child. In West Virginia, the foster care agency takes it instead, using it to pay for the cost of care the state is already legally required to provide. As of June 2026, West Virginia is one of only 11 states still doing this. For the kids affected, it can mean the difference between leaving foster care with something and leaving with nothing.
What is the Orphan Tax?
When a parent dies after having worked and paid into Social Security, their child is entitled to a monthly survivor benefit. The average monthly payment is around $1,000. For a child who has lost a parent and ended up in foster care, that money could be set aside to help pay for college, a security deposit on an apartment, or a car to get to work after aging out.
Instead, in West Virginia, the foster care agency steps in, collects the checks, and applies the money toward the cost of the child’s care, which is a service the state is legally required to provide to all children regardless.
Daniel Hatcher, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who has written extensively on this issue, described it plainly: “It is a violent abdication of trust when the very agency that exists to protect foster children is the one taking resources from them.”
West Virginia’s own foster care policy manual leaves no room for ambiguity. According to the manual, a child’s monthly income is considered a resource toward the cost of foster care, and those benefits shall be accepted by the Department and applied toward the cost of providing boarding care. Any money left over is supposed to go into an interest-bearing account for the child, but former caseworkers say that in practice, there is rarely anything left.
West Virginia Foster Care Is Already in Crisis
The orphan tax is one piece of a much larger picture of a state foster care system that is consistently failing its most vulnerable kids.
As of 2025, West Virginia has the highest rate of children in foster care in the United States: nearly 6,000 children are in the state system and the removal rate stands at 83.40 children per 100,000—eight times the national average.
The state has also repeatedly failed to use federal money meant to help foster youth transition to adulthood. Only 13% of West Virginia foster youth who aged out between 2018 and 2023 received any federally funded transitional support services, compared to 81% nationally. West Virginia returned nearly $7 million in unused federal transition funds to the federal government over that period.
A May 2026 survey of service providers in Kanawha and Clay counties found that 9 of 14 organizations said services for youth aging out of foster care do not adequately meet demand. Programs have waitlists. The system is fragmented. And the kids falling through the cracks are doing so in a state that already has more of them per capita than anywhere else in the country.
Governor Morrisey recently indicated willingness to invest millions in building more in-state institutions for foster kids, but vetoed legislation that would have expanded independent living options for youth aging out of care, citing potential cost.
The Federal Push West Virginia Is Ignoring
In December 2025, Alex Adams, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, sent a letter directly to Governor Morrisey urging him to stop diverting survivor benefits to offset foster care agency expenses. Since then, state after state has responded with legislation, executive orders, or regulatory reform. Adams has been traveling the country highlighting the issue and appeared in West Virginia in early May alongside Morrisey to celebrate a separate foster care reform initiative.
State Delegate Adam Burkhammer, who sponsored several related foster care bills this session, said he is aware of the nationwide push and is considering a legislative fix. West Virginia foster youth cannot afford to wait for the legislature to get around to it.
How You Can Help
The orphan tax West Virginia continues to collect is a policy choice, not an inevitability. It can be ended by executive order today, without waiting for a legislative session.
If you want to push for change, contact your state representative and ask them to support legislation ending the practice. And if you want to support foster youth directly—in West Virginia or anywhere else—becoming a foster parent, respite caregiver, or mentor is one of the most direct ways to make a difference. To learn more about how to get started, check out our guide or support foster youth directly when you sponsor one of our programs.