Disability Benefits, Substance Addiction, and the Undeserving Poor: A Critique of the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994

Linda G. Mills and Anthony Arjo

Linda C. Mills is Assistant Professor, Department of Social Welfare, U.C.L.A. School of Public Policy & Social Research. Anthony Arjo is an attorney at the Hawkins Center.

Drug addiction is one of the central issues underlying America's modern day class struggle. Under the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994, the Social Security Administration exacerbates this problem by invidiously discriminating against addicts in distributing benefits, compared with those suffering from more "sympathetic" disabilities such as heart disease.

Among the restrictions placed on victims of drug addiction is a thirty-six month cap on benefits, a suspension of benefits for failure to follow required treatment, and mandatory drug testing. Indeed, the Act severely curtails addicted persons' opportunities for rehabilitation. The Act is underscored by a history of bias and unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence against those afflicted by addiction. Further, the Act implicates more general racial and gender biases.

Congress should modify the Act to narrowly tailor it to the circumstances of each claimant's needs, reducing its overbreadth. For instance, Congress should provide additional work incentives, tailor the social security cut-off lengths, and suspend benefits only until treatment is resumed. Absent such reform, draconian impoverishment and homelessness are the inevitable consequences of the Act.

Vol. III, No. 2, p. 125 (1996)

Revised July 17, 2003 (MD)