Supplemental Security Income's 'Dedicated Account': A Debunked Urban Legend and Twenty Years of Waste

76 Pages Posted: 3 May 2017 Last revised: 28 Aug 2017

See all articles by Mary E. O'Connell

Mary E. O'Connell

Northeastern University - School of Law

Date Written: May 3, 2017

Abstract

This article explains the “dedicated account” provision of the Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) for children with disabilities. The children’s SSI program has always been highly contentious, and is a regular target of media criticism, most of it claiming that the program’s beneficiaries aren’t actually disabled. Responding to an onslaught of such claims in the mid-1990’s, Congress created the dedicated account as part of PRWORA, the statute that “ended welfare as we know it.”

The dedicated account rule requires any payment of past-due benefits that covers a period of six months or more to be deposited in a restricted bank account. Funds in this account cannot be used for food, shelter, clothing, transportation or most of the things a poor family with a disabled child might need. In an effort to shield the child from what the media portrays as scheming parents, Congress placed so many restrictions on the account that for many parents it is unusable.

The article, which is based on the stories of a number of clients of Greater Boston Legal Services Children’s Disability Project, calculates that the Social Security Administration spends over $7 million each year administering dedicated accounts. Three successive Social Security Commissioners have asked Congress to abolish the account. This article attempts to show why they are right.

Keywords: SSI, Supplemental Security Income

Suggested Citation

O'Connell, Mary E., Supplemental Security Income's 'Dedicated Account': A Debunked Urban Legend and Twenty Years of Waste (May 3, 2017). Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper No. 289-2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2962370 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2962370

Mary E. O'Connell (Contact Author)

Northeastern University - School of Law ( email )

416 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
United States

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