Senate OKs Ban on Benefits to Drug Addicts, Alcoholics : Legislation: Probe finds disability, lump-sum payments being used to feed substance abuse. Bill also makes Social Security agency a separate unit.

The Senate on Wednesday approved a ban on federal disability benefits for drug addicts and alcoholics who do not receive treatment but use the payments to feed their habits.

The Senate added the provision before passing a bill to make the Social Security Administration an independent federal agency instead of a unit of the Health and Human Services Department.

The measure now goes to the House, where approval is expected later this year.

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.), who sponsored the amendment, said that only 3% of the 250,000 persons who now receive disability benefits related to their substance abuse are being treated for their addictions.

Safeguards in the $1.4-billion federal program are so inadequate, Cohen said, that benefits are often paid to drug dealers or users who spend the money on heroin or cocaine.

In some cases, Cohen added, alcoholics or drug addicts have squandered retroactive lump-sum payments of up to $20,000 on drinking sprees or on purchases of cars that they subsequently wrecked in drug-related crashes. One tavern owner in Denver, he said, received $160,000 in a recent year as “custodian” for alcoholic customers.

A staff investigation produced other examples of abuses:

* In Bakersfield, Calif., a drug addict receiving Supplemental Security Income benefits died of a lethal overdose from drugs purchased with thousands of dollars of retroactive payments.

* An alcoholic in Van Nuys, Calif., who was awarded lump-sum benefits of $26,000 bought two cars and a van, went on a drinking binge and wrecked all three.

* A California man who received $19,000 in retroactive payments used the money to buy cocaine in Las Vegas.

Cohen’s amendment would require good-faith compliance with treatment programs, where available, and give addicts or alcoholics who receive benefits a priority for entrance into federally funded programs.

In addition, it would require that cash benefits be paid only to government institutions or private agencies who would manage the funds for the addicted person. A three-year limit on payments to substance abusers would be enforced.

“This amendment is intended to make sure that addicts and alcoholics get treatment for their addictions and to stop federal cash payments from going into a needle or into a bottle,” Cohen said.

An investigation by the Republican staff of the Senate Special Committee on Aging found that federal payments totaling $1.4 billion were made to 250,000 drug addicts and alcoholics under the Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income programs.

Of those, fewer than one-third were subject to any controls or monitoring of the funds they received. Fewer than 8,000 persons were known by the Social Security Administration to be in treatment.

Noting that the number of persons receiving benefits for substance abuse has climbed by 150% in recent years, Cohen said: “The word is out that this is an easy way to get cash.”

The underlying measure, making the Social Security Administration independent, was approved by the House in 1982 and 1986 but never before by the Senate.