The Children’s Supplemental Security Income Program: A Review of Recent Research and Trends

August 2011, Shawn Fremstad and Rebecca Vallas

This set of presentation slides summarize information in a forthcoming working paper on children with disabilities who are beneficiaries of Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Signed into law by President Nixon in 1972, SSI provides basic income supplements to people with very limited resources who are over age 65, blind, or have a severe disability. These slides: 1) review the percentage of children who receive SSI and compares it with various estimates of the incidence of disability among children, 2) summarize recent research on how families with disabled children are more likely to experience economic hardship than families with non-disabled children, even at the same income levels, and on how SSI reduces income poverty without discouraging parental employment; 3) examine trends in receipt of SSI over the last decade, and reviews factors that have contributed to a modest increase in SSI receipt by children; and 4) show that, contrary to some suggestions, there has been no long-term increase in the share of children who receive SSI for mental disorders.

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