General Course and Correlates of Improvement and Decline following Termination of the Supplemental Security Income Impairment Category for Drug Addiction and Alcoholism

Abstract

This paper examines the response of former SSI DA&A beneficiaries to the loss of benefits across multiple areas of functioning and across time. The main purposes of the study were to determine how termination of the DA&A program affected individuals generally, to understand the degree of variation in response to lost benefits, and to determine the individual and social correlates of improvement and decline given expected individual variations in adaptability. Self-report data collected at six-month intervals over two years at nine study sites from 1,640 former SSI DA&A recipients were analyzed to assess the overall degree of change across seven areas of functioning. Contrary to expectations, we found that the majority of subjects had maintained a constant level of functioning or were slightly improved. However, those who were among the heaviest alcohol and drug users at baseline and who were not able to substantially replace their lost disability income were the most likely to show deteriorations in functioning.