Summary: The Social Security Administration's (SSA) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides cash benefits to eligible low-income disabled individuals, including children, as well as certain others. Children may generally qualify for SSI benefits if they meet certain financial requirements and are deemed to have a qualifying medically determinable physical or mental impairment of a specified duration or severity that results in a functional limitation. In 2010, SSA paid more than $9 billion to about 1.2 million disabled children. Over the past decade, the overall number of children receiving SSI benefits has continued to rise. In this statement, GAO discusses initial observations from its ongoing review and examines (1) the trends in the rate of children receiving SSI benefits due to mental impairments over the past decade; (2) the role that medical and nonmedical information, such as medication and school records, play in the initial determination of a child's medical eligibility; and (3) the steps SSA has taken to monitor the continued medical eligibility of these children. To examine these issues, GAO analyzed program data, interviewed SSA officials, conducted site visits to SSA field offices and state disability determination services (DDS) offices, and interviewed external experts. This work is ongoing and GAO has no recommendations at this time. GAO plans to issue its final report in April 2012.
The numbers of children applying for and receiving SSI benefits due to a mental impairment has increased over the past decade and now comprise a growing majority of all child beneficiaries. While more than half of child applicants are denied each year, children with mental impairments, such as autism, have represented a growing share of those medically allowed for benefits--increasing from 60 to 67 percent between fiscal years 2000 and 2010. Factors including but not limited to the rising number of children living in poverty and increased diagnosis of certain mental impairments may have contributed to such growth. However, the relative effects of these and other factors on program growth are not fully known at this time. Generally, DDS officials reported that they rely on a combination of key medical and nonmedical information--such as medical records and teacher and parent assessments--in determining a child's medical eligibility and that they consider the totality of information related to the child's impairments, rather than one piece of information in isolation. For example, SSA and DDS officials said that they consider a child's use of prescribed medications in the context of other information including school records and teacher assessments, which are critical in evaluating the child's functioning over time. Yet, despite the importance of such nonmedical evidence, GAO's work shows that examiners sometimes face challenges in obtaining this information partly due to teachers' reluctance to complete the assessments. SSA is required to periodically review the medical eligibility of certain children receiving SSI benefits, but GAO's work shows that SSA has conducted significantly fewer childhood continuing disability reviews (CDR) in recent years. Between fiscal years 2000 and 2010, the number of childhood CDRs and age 18 reviews overall fell from more than 200,000 to about 126,000 (a 38 percent decrease), while childhood CDRs for those with mental impairments dropped from more than 84,000 to about 13,000 (an 84 percent decrease). SSA officials have acknowledged that the agency is not conducting childhood CDRs in a timely manner mostly due to resource constraints. However, SSA recognizes the importance of conducting CDRs and has recently estimated that the CDR process yields a savings-to-cost ratio of $12.50 to $1.
