Supplemental Security Income

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has made considerable progress in implementing the new eligibility criteria mandated by welfare reform for childhood disability benefits under the Supplemental Security Income program. SSA has taken important steps to ensure fairness by identifying children whose benefits may have been terminated inappropriately and taking remedial action to rereview their cases. However, because SSA's medical listings reflect multiple levels of severity, it also needs to expedite updating and modifying its medical listings to guarantee that all children are assessed against a uniform severity standard. The need to revise the listings is a long-standing problem that GAO reported three years ago. Moreover, SSA needs to follow through on its plan to monitor and continually improve the quality of decisions regarding children.

GAO noted that: (1) SSA has made considerable progress in implementing the welfare reform changes in eligibility for SSI children; (2) SSA has taken important steps to safeguard fairness by identifying children whose benefits may have been terminated inappropriately and establishing remedial action to rereview their cases; (3) however, because SSA's medical listings reflect multiple levels of severity, SSA also needs to expedite updating and modifying its medical listings to ensure that all children are assessed against a uniform severity standard; (4) the need to revise the listings is a long-standing problem that GAO reported on in 1995; (5) moreover, SSA needs to take concerted action to follow through on its plan for monitoring and continually improving the quality of decisions regarding children; and (6) consistent with a legislative mandate, GAO will continue to focus its work on SSA's efforts to provide reasonable assurance that it can administer the program consistently and improve the accuracy of childhood disability decisions.