DISABILITY: SSI Benefits Restored To Some Disabled Kids

      Following a Social Security Administration review, the agency has reinstated benefits for about 40% of 148,000 poor disabled children cut from the SSI program. The AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports that SSI Commissioner Kenneth Apfel told the Senate Finance subcommittee on Social Security yesterday that "just under 100,000" children will be removed from the program following reviews of individual cases. Social Security originally cut "about 148,000" of the 250,000 children on SSI. So far, however, "of the 53,151 cases reviewed, 41% have been returned to the rolls." Many children on SSI were removed from the program following the enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law, which sought to crack down on abuse in the SSI program (Meckler, 7/8). The AP/Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports that SSI benefits cost the government $6 billion annually, and Apfel said the savings from the revised cuts will be around $3.5 billion over five years -- about $1 billion less than projected (Meckler, 7/8).