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Children’s SSI program examined

Research cites a cycle of dependency

By Patricia Wen

 |  Globe Staff  

  October 28, 2011

Indigent children who grew up as part of a $10 billion federal disability program often do not fare well in early adulthood: Four out of 10 are high school drop-outs and eight out of 10 are unemployed within five years of their 18th birthday, according to congressional testimony yesterday. “We need to rethink the current policies,’’ said David Wittenberg, a senior researcher at the Mathematica Policy Research. His testimony came at the first Congressional hearing convened in the wake of a Boston Globe report, published last December.

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