Kids and SSI: reducing the caseload.

• Position: Supplementary Security Income

State legislators may be fielding phone calls from families whose children lose Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments under federal welfare reform changes. Between 136,000 and 200,000 children with disabilities began losing SSI benefits July 1, 1997.

Advocates point to the hardship families will face when they lose SSI payments that go only to low-income households with a member who meets specified disability criteria.

"It's the disability criteria that are changing," reports Jenifer Simpson of the United Cerebral Palsy Associations, "not the needs faced by children and families."

Simpson believes that states and local communities may see an increased demand for foster care and group homes because some families won't be able to cope as well with their children's behavioral disorders and other needs once they lose the cash assistance.

A 1990 Supreme Court decision (Sullivan vs. Zebley) enabled more than 200,000 previously ineligible children to receive SSI benefits. The ruling allowed children to undergo an "individual functional assessment" (IFA) to determine SSI eligibility that was comparable to the process used for adults.

Welfare reform legislation repealed the IFA and eliminated eligibility based on "maladaptive behavior."

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