Child SSI Benefits

What this guide is about:

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are available for children. This guide will explain how the Social Security Administration (SSA) decides if a child is disabled enough to get SSI benefits.

In addition to the child’s medical qualifications, a child’s family must have a low amount of income and resources in order for the child to receive SSI.

How are children different from adults?

When SSA decides if adults are disabled, they look to see if the adult can do any work. That standard does not apply to children under the age of 18.

Instead, there is a three-step process that SSA follows:

Step 1

First, SSA looks to see if the child is earning money. Just like with adults, if a child is making too much money per month, they will normally not be found disabled.

Step 2

Second, SSA looks to make sure a child has a “severe” problem. A severe problem is an impairment that has more than a minimal effect on a child’s life. For instance, allergies are generally not a severe impairment.

Step 3

Third, SSA evaluates the child’s impairments to see if they meet, medically equal, or are functionally equivalent to the listings of impairments.

Meet a listing: SSA has a list of problems that children can have, ranging from heart problems to psychiatric problems. For each problem, there are medical findings that must be in the evidence in order for the child to meet that listing.

Medically equal a listing: If the child has a medical impairment that is similar to a listed impairment, they might medically equal a listing. That means that SSA finds that a problem the child has is just as severe as a listed problem.

Functionally equivalent to the listings: A child’s limitations are functionally equivalent to the listings if his or her problems cause functional limitations as bad as the listed impairments. SSA has special rules for functional equivalence.

Functional Equivalence

To determine if a child’s impairments are functionally equivalent to the listings, SSA looks at the child’s levels of functioning in six areas:

Acquiring and Using Information

The child’s ability to acquire and learn information, and how well a child uses the information that has been learned.

Attending and Completing Tasks

How well a child is able to focus, maintain attention, finish tasks, and perform at a good pace.

Interacting and Relating With Others

How well a child initiates and sustains emotional connections with others, uses language, cooperates, obeys rules, responds to criticism, and respects and takes care of the possessions of others.

Moving About and Manipulating Objects

How well a child moves his or her body from one place to another and how a child moves and manipulates things. This covers both gross and fine motor skills.

Caring for Self

How well a child maintains a healthy emotional and physical state, including how well a child gets his or her physical and emotional wants and needs met in appropriate ways; how a child copes with stress and changes in his or her environment; and whether a child takes care of his or her own health, possessions, and living area.

Health and Physical Well-Being

The cumulative physical effects of physical and mental impairments and their associated treatments or therapies, including medication side-effects, weakness, shortness of breath, pain, or fatigue.

Severity

SSA must decide whether the child has a “marked” or “extreme” limitation in any of these areas. In order to be qualified for SSI, a child must have a marked limitation in two areas of functioning, or an extreme limitation in one area.

To determine whether a child has a marked or extreme limitation, a child’s functioning is always considered in comparison with children of the same age who do not have impairments – i.e., in comparison with children who are healthy.

A marked limitation is when the child has test scores two or more standard deviations below the norm (such as a 65 IQ), when the child is functioning in the bottom 2.28% of the child’s age group (1 in 44 children), or when the child is very young if the child is developing at less than 2/3 of his or her chronological age.

An extreme limitation is when a child has no meaningful function in an area, when the child has test scores three or more standard deviations below the norm (bottom 0.13%), or in very young children if the child is developing at less than 1/3 of his or her chronological age.

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This page was last edited July 24, 2006.