In the U.S., Social Security not only pays benefits to retired workers, but it also pays benefits to the qualified children of parents who are deceased. According to the Social Security Administration, 98 percent of children with working parents are eligible for Social Security survivors' benefits if a working parent dies. Working parents earn credits toward survivors' benefits based on the number of years they have worked, according to the Social Security Administration, but no parent has to work more than ten years to qualify his or her child for survivors' benefits.
SSI Insurance Benefits
Social Security will pay the child of a qualified worker up to 75 percent of the amount of retirement benefits that worker would have been eligible for when he or she died, according to the Social Security Administration. To qualify, the child must be younger than 18 years of age or 19 years of age if attending a K-12 school full-time. The parent, meanwhile, must have worked for a certain amount of years to qualify for benefits. Workers over age 24 receive a yearly statement from the Social Security Administration explaining what benefits they qualify for.
Death Benefit
Surviving children of qualified workers are also eligible to receive their deceased parent's Social Security death benefit, according to the Social Security Administration. As of 2010, the death benefit was a one-time payment of $255 intended to help defray the costs of burial or cremation of the deceased.
Disability Benefits
Children may receive disability benefits on their own behalf from the Social Security Administration. In addition to receiving disability benefits, children with a deceased parent who qualified for survivor's benefits may receive a survivor's benefit equal to 75 percent of the benefit their parent earned before death. Unlike the standard children's survival benefit, however, the benefit for disabled children does not end at age 18 or 19 but continues indefinitely, as long as the child was completely disabled before age 22.
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