SSI for children is at risk

[Guest guest]

Please see below, especially if you live in the DC area and might know a family

who can speak out in support of SSI at a hearing. Note that written stories are

sought as well.

Kids' SSI Hearing Announced; Families Needed

A Congressional hearing is scheduled for Thursday (10/27) 9a.m. (see

announcement at bottom) on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for low-income

children. We ask everyone to forward the attached Call-for-Families (also below)

to find family members of children with disabilities who receive, or have

received SSI, to volunteer to:

· Share their stories with members of Congress and reporters;

· Attend the hearing (for those families and children who are in the

vicinity of DC, their attendance will show that families are ready to mobilize);

and/or

· Contribute a brief written account of why SSI is important to them for

use at this event or in the future.

We expect the hearing will be slanted heavily against SSI. It is crucial that

people who benefit from this important resource are available to defend it and

to put a face on what is at stake!

Urgent: Families Needed for 10/27 House Hearing, Interviews; Children's SSI at

Risk!

Who: Local Affiliates/Networks

When: Thursday, October 27, 9:00am (Eastern Standard Time)

Where: House Ways and Means, Human Resources Subcommittee, Longworth

TBD, House Office Building

Needed: Families of Children with Disabilities Receiving Supplemental

Security Income (SSI) Childhood Disability Benefits

The House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on

October 27th, at 9:00am, on Children's Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a

program that serves as a critical lifeline for families raising children with

severe disabilities.

The SSI Coalition for Children and Families, a national consortium of

organizations dedicated to serving vulnerable children and adolescents, needs

your help in identifying families with children who receive SSI disability

benefits in advance of this hearing. These children and families are essential

so Congress sees whose benefits would be jeopardized by the termination or

gutting of this critical program.

As you know, SSI provides urgently needed support to very low-income families

struggling to meet the needs of children with severe disabilities. Studies have

consistently shown that families raising children with disabilities face

economic and material hardship at significantly greater rates than families

without a child with disabilities. The SSI cash benefit enables families to

access the services necessary for children to remain with their families in

their community, instead of being sent to state facilities for institution-based

care. These benefits are also essential to preventing already hard-hit families

from falling deeper into poverty.

Simply put, cuts to this critical program would be nothing short of catastrophic

to the more than 1.2 million children with severe disabilities for whom SSI is a

lifeline.

If you know a family with a child receiving SSI disability benefits, who you

think might be willing to attend the hearing on October 27 at 9:00am, and/or

might be willing to share their story, please contact Stein at

jstein@..., or .

Thanks for your help.

The SSI Coalition for Children and Families