‘Casualties’ Expected With Disability Law

Social service providers in Ventura County are scrambling to meet the need they say will arise when the federal government stops handing out disability checks to people based on their addictions to drugs or alcohol.

Federal officials have informed nearly 700 county residents that their Supplemental Security Income payments will run out at the end of this year.

A new law, effective Jan. 1, scraps SSI benefits to about 100,000 people nationwide disabled by long-term alcohol and drug dependence.

“There are going to be casualties because of this,” said Bob Costello, executive director of the Homeless Employment Resource Operation. The Ventura-based agency is working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and other groups to find ways to keep SSI recipients clean and sober.

“I’m not totally against it, because there is some abuse in the system,” Costello added. “But it should have been done a little slower to try to weed out the abusers from those who have legitimate medical problems.”

An estimated 15,500 Ventura County residents receive disability benefits through the Supplemental Security Income program. Of those, 687 received notices recently that their benefits were being eliminated under a law passed by Congress last year.

Those who believe their disabilities are based on something other than drugs or alcohol can appeal the rulings, said Lowell Kepke, a public affairs specialist with the Social Security Administration in San Francisco.

Kepke said Social Security officials estimate that at least 70% of those who file appeals will still be eligible for benefits.

“Congress passed the changes because of the public outcry that it just seemed wrong to pay people disability benefits when their only disability is drug addiction or alcoholism,” Kepke explained. “We’re just administering the law.”

County officials say they are working to identify those who stand to lose benefits in an effort to help them find other types of assistance.

“For the people who are in treatment programs, we will continue to find some way to keep them in treatment,” said Steve Kaplan, who heads the county’s alcohol and drug programs. “We’re doing as much as we can think of for our clients.”