Nearly 1% Of U.S. Children Have Mental Disorders & Receive Social Security Disability Benefits

About 650,000 children in the United States in 2013 received Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits due to a mental disorder; this group of children represents half of the 1.3 million children who received SSI disability benefits that year. About 1.9% of the total 73.4 million population of children in the United States received SSI disability benefits; 0.89% received SSI due to a mental disorder. In 2012, $9.9 billion (20%) of SSI disability payments were to children.

Of those approximately 650,000 children receiving SSI disability payments due to a mental disorder in 2013 . . .