New rules may halt benefits to more than 100,000 disabled children. She sets aside money in meticulous expense ledgers for Jonathan's outings with a local teacher who teaches him socialization skills, and a little more for his twice-monthly speech therapy. I really don't know what we would do. The reviews are being conducted under new rules, adopted in last year's overhaul of the welfare system, that significantly tighten the program's definition of disability. But the program's critics contend it has been abused by families whose children are not truly disabled.
Some people regard it as just a super welfare program.
The assault on children's SSI began three years ago, when a spate of news reports carried charges that parents were coaching children to act out mental disabilities. But these investigations received little attention, and skepticism in Congress remained strong. Many will have to give up treatments ranging from speech training to medicine. Others may end up homeless, since SSI families are poor and the check is a large percentage of household income. And some families may be torn apart.