The Social Security Administration's (SSA's) Children's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program is the only federal program to provide financial assistance and medical insurance for the disabled child of a poor family. Although the support is not great -- on average $440 per month -- this amount is significant in allowing a family with minimal or no other income to meet the special needs of a child with a disability. For many families, the difference amounts to the ability to keep a roof over the child's head and, with that, to keep the child in school.
Welfare reform significantly tightened the SSI disability standards for children. As a result, the SSI benefits of over 135,000 children nationwide were terminated. These numbers included some 5,000 children in California. The new law also requires SSA to reevaluate children's cases once every three years to determine whether a child recipient continues to be eligible for SSI benefits. If Social Security determines that the child is no longer eligible -- or if the family fails to cooperate in any way with this complicated reevaluation process -- Social Security terminates the child's disability benefits.
The Hawkins Center Children's SSI Disability Program provides free legal representation to disabled children residing in Contra Costa County whose benefits have been terminated under the new, stricter eligibility standards and who are seeking reentitlement to SSI benefits. Some children have been referred to the Center via a network established by the National Center for Youth Law in conjunction with the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the San Francisco Bar Association. Most families who have contacted the Hawkins Center for help with their child's disability case have been referred by word of mouth or by workers in county agencies with which the Center maintains close working contacts.
Once referred, program staff, headed by Linda Durston, Ph.D., assess potential clients to identify cases in which the child's disability clearly does not meet the new, more stringent disability standard promulgated under welfare reform. In such cases, we help families develop treatment plans and assist in referring the children to local medical, social, community, and educational programs which address the child's special needs. We provide all other children with direct legal representation throughout the appeal process.
To support its newly established Children's SSI Disability Program, the Center is seeking funding from various local, state and national foundations. The long-term objective of the program is to provide free legal assistance not only to children residing in Contra Costa County whose benefits have been terminated under welfare reform but to provide legal representation for free or at significantly reduced cost to the hundreds of children in the local area whose ongoing eligibility for benefits is threatened every year.
For more information about the Hawkins Center Children's SSI Disability
Program, e-mail Linda Durston,
Ph.D., at ldurston@hawkinscenter.org
or call her at (510) 232-6611, ext. 18.