Survivor benefits to minor children

I have not seen evidence indicating a surviving child MUST live with a surviving parent to qualify for survivor benefits. I can see cases (marital separation prior to death, abuse, surviving parent travels etc.) where living with the parent does not make sense.

SSA documents indicate a representative payee is generally the legal guardian of the child, but this is not absolute :

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10077.html#4

People who have "legal guardianship" or "power of attorney" for someone do not automatically qualify to be a representative payee.

Here are a couple forms regarding representative payee appointment :

http://www.ssa.gov/online/ssa-11.pdf

http://www.ssa.gov/online/ssa-1696.pdf