The Nation - News from Jan. 10, 1988

Mental health and social workers are looking for thousands of mentally disabled people in New York who may be eligible for up to $20,000 each in Social Security benefits cut off several years ago, according to a published report. Benefits to thousands of such people nationwide were held up or cut off between 1980 and 1983 in a budget-cutting maneuver that has since been ruled illegal, the New York Times reported. Some 14,000 former recipients live in New York state, half of them in New York City, the newspaper said. The search in New York, among the first in the nation, is expected to be followed by a letter campaign by the Social Security Administration to 200,000 people in other states, the newspaper said.