ARE THE CUTS UNKIND?

By ADAM COHEN

Shirley Eshelman is physically disabled, but she manages to work small miracles for her 12-year-old son Jonathan, who is emotionally disturbed and has learning difficulties. And she does so on a family income of just $241 a week. She stretches a $30-a-month grocery budget by planting a large vegetable garden outside her home in rural Middletown, Md., and by taking Jonathan to a food pantry where they volunteer in exchange for food. She sets aside money in meticulous expense ledgers for Jonathan's outings with a local teacher who teaches him socialization skills, and a little more for his twice-monthly speech therapy. But the Eshelmans' world may be on the brink of collapse because of new federal rules that could take away Jonathan's $74-a-week disability check. "It's frightening," says Eshelman, who is worried that with her two-person household's income cut almost a third, she won't be able to meet her house payments, and she and her son will end up homeless. "I really don't know what we would do."

Jonathan is one of 264,000 low-income, disabled children nationwide whose Supplemental Security Income benefits, averaging $424 a month, are being reviewed for possible termination. The reviews are being conducted under new rules, adopted in last year's overhaul of the welfare system, that significantly tighten the program's definition of disability. So far, 42% of children whose cases have been reviewed under the new rules nationally have been found ineligible; some started losing benefits last week. Jonathan's review ended with a request for him to submit further evidence of his disability--a sign, his mother fears, that he may be on the verge of being cut off.

The move to slash children's disability is in part budget driven: the government estimates that the new eligibility rules could save $4.7 billion over six years. But the program's critics contend it has been abused by families whose children are not truly disabled. "The standards are vague and easily met," says Representative Jim McCrery, a Louisiana Republican and supporter of the new rules. "Some people regard it as just a super welfare program." The assault on children's SSI began three years ago, when a spate of news reports carried charges that parents were coaching children to act out mental disabilities. Among these was a 1994 story on ABC's PrimeTime Live titled "Crazy Checks," which offered anecdotal evidence of cheating in what it called "a government program gone haywire." In time the charges were largely dismissed by four separate investigations, including the Social Security Administration's own, which found "no evidence" of widespread parental prompting. But these investigations received little attention, and skepticism in Congress remained strong.

What will happen to those who lose SSI? Many will have to give up treatments ranging from speech training to medicine. Others may end up homeless, since SSI families are poor and the check is a large percentage of household income. And some families may be torn apart. Organizations like the Arc, formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens, say they have been inundated with calls from parents afraid they will have to give up their children to foster care or institutionalization. "People tell us this is what's holding their family together," says Arc spokesman Marty Ford. "If you pull this card out, the whole house falls down."

--By Adam Cohen/Middletown