SLEDGE: Can stepchildren receive benefits?

Q: I’ll be 62 in 2010 and have a 13-year-old stepdaughter. I plan to start drawing my Social Security benefits next year. Will she be able to get anything on my record?

A: Stepchildren constitute one of about ten categories of children who can, under certain conditions, receive Social Security benefits on the record of an entitled or deceased parent, including stepparents, adoptive parents — even, in some cases, grandparents. In all cases, though, the child must meet both a relationship and a dependency requirement.

The relationship requirement for some children — natural legitimate children, for instance — is generally treated as self-evident (“deemed,” we call it) and a birth certificate is all that’s needed. With stepchildren, however, it’s necessary to establish the child’s relationship to the stepparent as a result of the stepparent’s marriage to the child’s parent. Moreover, the marriage of the stepparent and the child’s parent must have taken place at least one year before the child’s application is filed in a life claim (a claim based on the record of a living stepparent), or nine months before the stepparent’s death in a death claim.
What happens, then, if the marriage of the child’s parent and stepparent ends? Will that end the child’s entitlement on the stepparent’s record? Not if the marriage ended in death. In fact, the death of the stepparent can be the basis of the child’s entitlement to survivor’s benefits in the first place. But if the marriage ended in divorce, then whether the child’s benefits on the stepparent’s record will continue depends on when the divorce occurred. If it happened before July 1996, a stepchild’s benefits can continue. But if the divorce took place in or after July 1996, the child’s entitlement to benefits on the stepparent’s record will terminate the month after the month in which the divorce becomes final.

Now as for the dependency requirement, this, too, is presumed — deemed — in the case of most categories of child beneficiaries. It does not have to be proven, for example, that a natural legitimate child is financially dependent on a parent in order to meet this requirement for entitlement. But with stepchildren, once again things are a bit more complicated. And once again we’re looking at whether entitlement begins before or after July 1996. (Obviously the law changed at that time, making the rules more strict.)

For a stepchild to become entitled to benefits on the stepparent’s record prior to July 1996, that child could have been either receiving at least one-half support during a specified time period or simply have been living with the stepparent. To entitle a child on a stepparent’s record in or after July 1996, however, is a different matter. No longer is “living with” an acceptable alternative to “one-half support.” Only “one-half support” will suffice from that time on.

So, to answer your question, your stepdaughter will be able to receive child’s benefits on your Social Security record if (a) you have been married to her mother for at least one year by the time the application is filed, and if (b) she has been receiving at least one-half of her support from you during the twelve-month period prior to filing.

You can read more about this at http://www.socialsecurity.gov. Try the Frequently Asked Questions under the Benefits category, or the publication “Benefits for Children” in the Retirement category of the Publications link.