Vice President Al Gore Announces 5-year, $25 Million Grant Program at the Social Security Administration

Vice President Al Gore announced today that the Social Security Administration will award grants to nine States initially totaling $4.4 million to develop innovative projects to assist adults with disabilities in their efforts to reenter the work force. These competitive grants are the first of a five-year $25 million program designed to provide coordinated approaches to increase work opportunities for people with disabilities.

"I am pleased to announce this new grant that will help people with disabilities and severe mental illnesses return to work and take their place as full members of the American family," Vice President Gore said. "We know every time a person with mental illness or disability is able to keep and obtain a job, it doesn't just benefit them--it enriches our whole society."

The grants are the first activity launched under an Executive Order signed on March 13, 1998 by President Clinton that created the National Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities. This task force will establish a coordinated and aggressive national policy to bring working age individuals with disabilities into gainful employment at a rate similar to that of the general population.

The goal of the State projects is to return as many participants as possible to work. It is expected that the new approaches developed by States will create Federal/State partnerships and serve as models for other States to replicate.

"We want to make sure that those individuals with disabilities who want to work have access to programs that will allow them to do so," Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner of Social Security, said. "These awards will help States develop state-wide programs of services and support for their residents with disabilities that will increase job opportunities for them and decrease their dependence on benefits - including Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)."

States receiving demonstration funding include:
(Click on each for the State projects to be awarded)

• California, $509,887
• Minnesota, $517,243
• New Hampshire, $464,284
• New Mexico, $660,690
• North Carolina, $290,549
• Ohio, $349,980
• Oklahoma, $292,625
• Wisconsin, 946,525
• Vermont, $341,481

Other federal agencies such as the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education will join the Social Security Administration in support of these projects.

SSA pays monthly disability insurance benefits to some 6.2 million workers and their families at an annual cost of $50.6 billion. Another 5.2 million individuals receive disability benefits under the SSI program, totaling $25 billion annually.

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS: ABSTRACTS OF STATE PROGRAMS ARE AVAILABLE BY CONTACTING THE SSA PRESS OFFICE AT 410.965.8904.

Note: copies of most SSA press releases, as well as other Social Security information and statistics, are available at SSA’s Internet site, Social Security Online, at http://www.ssa.gov