A life-cycle perspective on the transition to adulthood among children receiving Supplemental Security Income payments

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.