# Presentation: 768254

## Reengineering the SIPP: An Assessment of the Use of Administrative Records

- Jim Farber and Sally Obenski
- US Census Bureau
- CNSTAT Panel
- January 26, 2007

## Overview 

- Background on the Dynamics of Economic Well-being System
- Administrative records assessment methodology and outcome
- Prototyping methodology and outcome
- Next steps
- Conclusions

## Dynamics of Economic Well-being Goals

- Cost reduction
- Improved accuracy
- Improved timeliness     and accessibility
- Improved relevance

- Use of annual data collection
- Focused content selection
- Lower attrition rates
- Integrated administrative data
- Improved documentation
- Improved processing system
- Work closely with disclosure review board
- Ongoing content determination process; use of “hooks”
- Use of ACS

## Scoping AR Feasibility

- Inventory in-house files
- Review SIPP content requirements
- Assess availability and usability of in-house files to meet SIPP requirements
- Begin prototype development

## Assessment Methodology (1)

- Identify administrative records that contain content for basic SIPP topics
- Demographics
- Labor Force
- Health Insurance
- Assets
- General Income
- Program Participation
- Identify and bring together experts on administrative records and on survey content

## Assessment Methodology (2)

- For each basic SIPP topic, identify the content goal
- Align available administrative records content to the survey content goal
- Sometimes one-to-one alignment
- Sometimes many-to-one or one-to-many
- Assess administrative records quality issues
- Recommend administrative records variables for prototypes

## Assessment Outcome:Demographics

- Sources:	- Social Security Numident
- 			- Census 2000
- Scope:  	National
- Coverage: 	Social Security Number holders
- Alignment with SIPP content:
- Age, Sex, Race, Hispanic Origin, U.S. Citizenship

## Assessment Outcome:Labor Force

- Source:		IRS Tax Returns
- Scope:		National
- Coverage:	Filers
- Alignment with SIPP content:
- Total Earnings from job(s) or income (loss) from business(es)

## Assessment Outcome:  Health Insurance 

- Sources:		Medicare, Medicaid
- Scope:			National
- Coverage:  	Enrollees
- Alignment with SIPP content:
- Nearly all SIPP Medicare items
- Does not currently cover Medicare part D
- Nearly all SIPP Medicaid items
- Current lag of about four years hinders use of Medicaid

## Assessment Outcome: Assets

- Sources:		IRS Tax and Information Returns
- Scope:			National
- Coverage:	- Filers,
- 								- IRS-covered income earners
- Alignment with SIPP content:
- Nearly all aggregate SIPP asset items
- Does not have detailed ownership of and income from mortgages

## Assessment Outcome:General Income

- Sources:	- Social Security Master Beneficiary Record 	- Supplemental Security Income Record
- 		- IRS Tax Returns
- Scope:	National
- Coverage:	Beneficiaries, SSI recipients, filers
- Alignment with SIPP content:
- Many SIPP general income items
- Aggregated SIPP Amounts of Unemployment Compensation available from tax data
- Other SIPP items available in aggregate from tax data

## Assessment Outcome:Program Participation

- Sources:	- State-specific program files (TANF, 	Food Stamps, etc.)		- HUD–TRACS
- Scope:	- States of MD, IL, and TX		- National for HUD file
- Coverage:	Program participants
- Alignment with SIPP content:
- About a third of the SIPP items
- No current source files for energy assistance, school meals, WIC, and some other programs

## Administrative Records Successes

- Medicare Enrollment Database (MEDB)

**Medicare health insurance coverage**

- Master Beneficiary Record (MBR)

**Work disability and source of general income (e.g., Social Security)**

- IRS Tax and Information Returns

**Asset ownership, income/earnings from a job, profit from a business, unemployment compensation, receipt of alimony**

- SSA Numident

**Demographic characteristics such as age, race, Hispanic origin, citizenship**

- Supplemental Security

**Receipt of Federal/state SSI**

- HUD - TRACS

**Public housing and receipt of rent subsidies**

## Administrative Records Quality Issues

- Availability
- Many programs run by states, e.g. Food Stamps, TANF
- New relationships, regulations, or agreements needed to use some files
- Time Lag
- e.g., national Medicaid file lags by about 4 years
- Coarseness
- Many survey requirements are highly nuanced, requiring detail not in administrative records

## Spiral Prototyping Methodology

- Simulate integrated database of survey and administrative records
- Begin simply:  one year of CPS linked to one administrative records file
- Increase complexity in later prototypes
- Link two years of CPS or SIPP to administrative records
- Add administrative records variables
- Ultimately simulate a near-final database with maximal administrative records input

## Analyzing the Prototypes

- Evaluate prototypes in three ways:  coverage, accuracy, and disclosure
- Disclosure to be addressed more fully in the future
- Coverage:  how many survey respondents can be linked to administrative records?
- Accuracy:  how closely does administrative records content match survey content?

## Coverage of the Prototypes

## Accuracy of the Prototypes (1)

- Absolute Difference in AGE:  CPS versus Numident

| Age Difference | Percent | Cumulative |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 0 | 89.8 | 89.8 |
| 1 | 6.7 | 96.5 |
| 2 | 1.4 | 97.9 |
| 3 | 1.2 | 99.1 |
| 4 | 0.4 | 99.5 |
| 5 – 9 | 0.4 | 99.9 |
| 10+ | 0.2 | 100.1 |

## Accuracy of the Prototypes (2)

- Longitudinal consistency of Medicare enrollment status
- CPS responses versus Medicare enrollment file
- Enrollment status compared for 2004 and 2005
- Consistent records agree in both years

| CPS enrollment response is consistent with Medicare file in 2004 and 2005 | 96.5% |
| --- | --- |
| CPS enrollment status is not consistent with Medicare file in 2004 and/or 2005 | 3.5% |

## FY 07 DEWS Research

- Complete national prototypes by including benefit data and modeled income data
- Develop state prototypes by linking as much state program data as possible
- Build decision process prototype for determining how AR could be integrated into DEWS design

## State Prototype Design (1)

- Maryland and Illinois state data and selected federal files
- Some program data are in-house, e.g.:
- Some data need to be acquired, e.g.:
- WIC, school meals, job training

| Food stamps | State Medicaid |
| --- | --- |
| Temporary Cash Assistance | Unemployment Insurance |
| Public housing assistance | Supplemental Security |

## State Prototype Design (2)

- Link multiple years of SIPP with state administrative records
- Create increasingly larger prototypes as data become available
- Evaluate state prototypes for coverage, accuracy, and disclosure

## Initial Process Prototype 

- Identify potential uses of administrative records in all phases of DEWS survey operations, e.g.:
- Quality assurance
- Editing and imputation
- Identify survey requirements needed for possible use of administrative records

## Conclusions

- Administrative records could help to inexpensively replace some SIPP content
- Administrative records have quality issues like lag and coverage
- Administrative records can not fully replace a field survey
- An integrated approach with survey data and administrative records data is one approach to re-engineer the SIPP

## Contact Information

**Contact Information**

**Notes:**
This concludes my presentation.  Now Sameenal Salvucci will discuss