Social Security to Review Cutoffs to 45,000 Children

WASHINGTON — Admitting some poor children were wrongly taken off disability rolls, the Social Security Administration will review at least 45,000 cases and give every child who was cut another chance to appeal.

Newly installed Commissioner Kenneth S. Apfel said Wednesday that a “top-to-bottom” review found a variety of problems as states determined whether 288,000 children met a new definition of disability.

Social Security now estimates that 100,000 children will ultimately be cut from the Supplemental Security Income program, which had grown to serve 1 million children. Officials had earlier estimated 135,000 children would ultimately be cut off.

Apfel, who promised during his Senate confirmation hearing to review the program, concluded many mentally retarded children were wrongly cut from the rolls, some states made too many mistakes in terminating cases and some families were confused about their rights.

All families will be given another opportunity to appeal, and Social Security workers will get new training to be sure the rules are applied fairly.

So far, about 135,000 children have been cut from the SSI program, and fewer than half have appealed. Of the 75,000 children who have not appealed, Social Security will automatically reconsider 45,000 cases including:

* 17,000 children whose files indicate they are mentally retarded, including some whose files were mislabeled. Children with IQs below 76 will automatically be returned to the rolls. Additionally, about 15,000 mentally retarded children who have applied for SSI since August 1996 and were denied will have their cases reviewed.

* 20,000 to 27,000 children with a variety of ailments, concentrated in 17 states with accuracy rates below 90%.

* 6,000 children who were cut from the rolls because their parents “failed to cooperate” with reviewers. In 68% of these cases, proper contacts to families were not made or not documented.

Last year’s welfare reform bill tightened the standards poor children must meet to qualify for SSI, which provides an average of $436 a month to help parents meet their children’s special needs.