Social Security benefits have sustained older Americans for generations. But the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) programs are also crucial to those on the opposite end of the age spectrum—providing children financial support due to disability, the loss of a parent, or other needs that could otherwise jeopardize their economic security. Recent attacks by the Trump administration, with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the forefront, undermine children’s ability to access the benefits they need, while a recent Supreme Court action puts kids’ sensitive data at risk of abuse.
Millions of children count on benefits from SSA
In 2023, 6.2 million children—just under 1 in 10 kids in the United States—lived in households receiving Social Security benefits. About 1.6 million grandparents ages 70 or older, along with nearly 2.4 million grandparents ages 60 to 69—age groups where the majority of people are receiving Social Security—live with minor grandchildren as of 2021. Similarly, children of disabled adults count on their parents’ disability benefits: About 1.7 million adult recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and 2.7 million adult recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) lived with children as of 2016.
According to Center for American Progress analysis, about 3.47 million people under age 18 personally received benefits from the Social Security Administration in December 2023—making up just under 5 percent of all children in the United States. Among those, 1.3 million received survivor benefits—cash benefits to children who have lost a parent, tied to that parent’s earnings. Social Security also supports children when a living parent’s income is cut off or reduced, including more than 900,000 children of disabled workers and more than 300,000 children of retired workers.
Nearly 1 million people under age 18 receive SSI benefits through the SSA for their own disability. These benefits cover children in households with limited incomes and assets who have demonstrated the severity of their disability. While families of kids with disabilities often face both increased costs and care needs that make it harder for parents to work, SSI is the only federal program targeted to providing income support to these families.
In 2023, Social Security lifted 1.36 million children under age 18 out of poverty. This makes Social Security one of the nation’s largest and most effective programs for fighting child poverty. The slate of benefits provided by SSA—whether retirement benefits in their households or direct SSI benefits to children—are particularly effective in combating deep poverty for children.
DOGE’s access to data, empowered by a recent Supreme Court decision, puts kids’ information at risk
The SSA begins collecting information on children from birth, starting from assigning their Social Security number. Even more detail is collected on those who seek or receive benefits from the agency. Contrary to the requirements of post-Watergate laws such as the Privacy Act, DOGE has relentlessly pursued access to this sensitive data, with kids caught in the crosshairs.
Until recently, a preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court had barred the SSA from turning over personally identifiable information to DOGE officials while a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s legal authority to access that information is pending. Yet on June 6, 2025, with the litigation still ongoing, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the preliminary injunction, essentially authorizing the SSA to turn over Americans’ personal information to DOGE immediately.
As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent summarized:
the Court grants a stay permitting the Government to give unfettered data access to DOGE regardless—despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards, and all before we know for sure whether federal law countenances such access.
As prior Center for American Progress research has highlighted, in the wrong hands, Americans’ private SSA data—including children’s data—could be exposed to outside hackers, used to train artificial intelligence without consent, or mishandled in ways that interfere with providing benefits. For example, DOGE’s carelessness with sensitive information such as Social Security numbers raises the risk of identity theft, at a time when identity theft against minors is a growing problem. In many cases, once the data has been turned over, the harms will be difficult if not impossible to reverse.
Some children face additional vulnerabilities in this onslaught. For example, DOGE now has access to detailed and sensitive medical records submitted to support the disability claims of children who have applied for SSI. Regardless of their type of benefit, children generally must rely on a “representative payee”—an adult, usually a family member or friend, who receives and manages benefit payments on the child’s behalf. In some cases, the representative payee may be someone who does not have a Social Security number or is undocumented, such as a noncitizen parent or caregiver of a citizen child. Information on these payees—and the children in their care—is dangerous in the hands of a DOGE team that has repeatedly abused and weaponized SSA data to hurt immigrants, from falsely labeling immigrants as “dead” in Social Security’s databases to misusing SSA databases to target undocumented people.
Staffing cuts to and service restrictions on the SSA harm children and families
Beyond control of data, President Donald Trump’s team has cut capacity and services at the SSA in ways that harm children. In an agency already at a 50-year staffing low, DOGE is working to shed 7,000 jobs, potentially with further cuts to come; these layoffs are one of the most unpopular actions taken by the second Trump administration in its first 100 days. Combined with ill-advised reorganizations and reassignments, these reductions have slowed down claims processing and made errors more likely. Collectively, this reduction in capacity makes it harder for everyone who needs SSA benefits, including kids, to apply for them or get assistance when needed.
Survivor benefits are already underused, with less than half of children with a dead parent receiving them, meaning many children are not receiving benefits to which they are entitled. Staffing cuts will only make this problem worse. Notably, unlike retirement benefits, survivor benefits can only be applied for in person or by phone, not online. As a result of the Trump administration’s actions, many field offices have plummeting staff levels at the same time phone wait times have skyrocketed, making it harder to file for and receive survivor benefits. At the same time, the combination of shifting restrictions on service by phone and understandable anxiety about accessing benefits have pushed more retirement claimants and others in need of support to go to SSA offices in person—compounding the staffing crunch in ways likely to reduce or slow down children’s ability to access much-needed survivor benefits.
When the agency is understaffed, disabled people are disproportionately affected. Those currently applying for disability benefits, rather than already receiving them, are the most vulnerable. Children make up nearly one-quarter—22.6 percent—of those applying for SSI disability benefits, despite making up just 13.2 percent of those already receiving benefits. This reflects the greater likelihood that children have a newly identified disability or are seeking benefits for the first time as compared with adults. As the Trump administration’s staffing cuts further slow the heavily backlogged claims determination process, disabled children will be forced to wait even longer for the benefits they need.
If benefits stop or show up late, kids will get hurt
Looming over children and families already receiving benefits from the SSA is the risk of benefits being interrupted or delayed. Remaining staff members are being deprived of the tools and support they need to do their jobs, from basic office supplies to IT professionals to fix broken technology. DOGE staffers are reportedly planning to rewrite the agency’s entire aging but essential code base, upon which the payments system relies, in just a few months—while experts say doing so safely would take years—risking disastrous, escalating system failures.
If benefits were stopped or delayed, kids would suffer. In families where children receive Social Security benefits, these benefits make up, on average, 21 percent of household income; where both children and adults receive Social Security, benefits are an average of 40 percent of household income. SSI disability benefits for children are limited to those who fall below very low limits for parental income and assets, meaning that child SSI benefits go to families who most need these benefits to make ends meet. Without the benefits they count on, too many children and families could quickly become unable to keep the lights on or put food on the table.
Conclusion
Americans of every age, in every corner of every state, count on Social Security, including millions of children. They trust the Social Security Administration to be there with the benefits they need when they need them—and to keep their private information safe along the way. When the Trump administration repeatedly undermines SSA functions and betrays the agency’s values, the nation’s children pay the price.
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