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HEHS-96-96R 1 (1996-03-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaclcb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Health, Education and Human Services Division B-271255 March 5, 1996 The Honorable Blanche Lambert Lincoln House of Representatives Dear Mrs. Lambert Lincoln: The number of children receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits has more than tripled in the last 6 years, from 300,000 to more than 900,000, and benefit payments now exceed $4 billion annually. The SSI program provides cash benefits to disabled children who live in families with low incomes and limited resources. As the number of children receiving SSI benefits has increased, particularly among children with mental impairments, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has received allegations that parents are coaching their children to fake mental impairments by misbehaving or doing poorly in school so that they can qualify for SSI. These benefits can amount to more than $5,600 per year for each disabled child. During a briefing with your staff on February 8, 1996, you asked us to provide you with information on two SSA initiatives to identify and process reports of parents coaching their children in order to qualify for SSI. We reviewed the documentation on all cases identified by these initiatives from their inception through July 1995.' For each initiative, we documented the total number of cases and how many of these had resulted in awards, as well as their geographic distribution, the nature of the allegation, and the action taken by SSA. We performed our work from August 1995 through February 1996 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 'According to SSA, the number of allegations received has declined since July, and updating this information would not raise significantly different issues. GAO/HEHS-96-96R SSA Initiatives to Identify Coaching

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