Members of Congress are asking for a federal investigation and say they expect to hold hearings on children’s Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, after a newspaper report revealed abuses of the program.

A senator and two members of the House of Representatives are asking the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, to look into the rise in the number of children receiving SSI benefits for hard to define conditions like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

The request comes after a series of articles in The Boston Globe last month exposed how some poor families are relying on children’s disability benefits for large portions of their income and continue to tap the federal program even in cases where the child beneficiary has outgrown their difficulties.

In some instances parents told the newspaper that they put their children on psychiatric drugs in order to bolster the child’s chances of receiving SSI.

Those within Congress say they expect to hold hearings on the children’s SSI program, possibly even before the GAO completes a report on the issue, reports The Boston Globe. To read more click here.

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