Affiliations: Social Security Administration, Washington, DC,
USA | Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Paul S. Davies, Social Security
Administration, 500 E Street SW Room 922, Washington, DC 20254, USA. Tel.: +1
202 358 6277; Fax: +1 202 358 6187; E-mail paul.davies@ssa.gov
Abstract: Youth who receive cash benefits from the Supplemental Security
Income (SSI) program, the largest federal program that provides cash payments
to low-income youth with severe disabilities and their families, face several
challenges in transitioning into adulthood. From a human capital development
perspective, the disabilities and health problems during childhood and early
adulthood as well as the family environment form important inputs that will
likely influence long-term adult outcomes. This paper provides a review of some
of the challenges these youth face in transitioning into adulthood using a
life-cycle framework and presents descriptive statistics on their challenges
and outcomes into early adulthood. Our summary illustrates the challenges that
SSI youth face as they make the transition to adulthood and shows how the
long-term employment and program outcomes of this population have changed over
time. The findings provide a broader framework for the remaining five papers in
this issue and underscore the need for rigorous testing of promising
interventions and a carefully balanced mix of statistical and econometric
analyses based on longitudinal data sources with a long time horizon.
Keywords: Supplemental Security Income, SSI, transition, youth, disabilities, Social Security, SSA, human capital development, evaluation, random assignment
