DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06457.v1
title: New [Social Security] Beneficiary Followup, 1991: [United States]
title: Version 1

description: The 1991 New [Social Security] Beneficiary Followup (NBF) is 
 the second wave of the Social Security Administration's NEW [SOCIAL 
 SECURITY] BENEFICIARY SURVEY, 1988: [UNITED STATES] (NBS) (ICPSR 8510). 
 Together, the two surveys are referred to as the New Beneficiary Data 
 System (NBDS). The NBDS contains information on the changing 
 circumstances of aged and disabled Title II beneficiaries. This wave 
 includes information from administrative records as well as data from 
 followup interviews with survivors from the original survey. The NBS 
 was conducted in late 1982 with a sample representing nearly 2 million 
 persons who had begun receiving Social Security benefits during a 
 12-month period in 1980-1981. Personal interviews were completed with 
 three types of beneficiaries: 9,103 retired workers, 5,172 disabled 
 workers, and 2,417 wife or widow beneficiaries. In addition, interviews 
 were obtained from 1,444 aged persons who were entitled to Medicare 
 benefits but were not receiving Social Security payments because of 
 high earnings. The NBS interviews covered a wide range of topics, 
 including demographic characteristics of the respondent, spouse, and 
 any other persons in the household, as well as marital and childbearing 
 history, employment history, current income and assets, and health. 
 Selected data were also gathered from spouses and added from 
 administrative records. The NBF followup interviews were conducted 
 throughout 1991 with surviving original sample persons from the NBS and 
 surviving spouses of NBS decedents. The NBF updated information on 
 economic circumstances obtained in the NBS, and added or expanded 
 sections dealing with health, family contacts, and post-retirement 
 employment. The interviews also probed major changes in living 
 circumstances that might cause changes in economic status (for example, 
 death of a spouse, episodes of hospitalization, and changes of 
 residence). In addition, disabled workers were asked about their 
 efforts to return to work, experiences with rehabilitation services, 
 and knowledge of Social Security work incentive provisions. Since the 
 1982 survey, selected information on the NBS respondents has been 
 compiled periodically from Social Security, Supplemental Security 
 Income (SSI), and Medicare records. These administrative data, which 
 can be linked to the survey data, make it possible to analyze changes 
 in NBS respondents' covered earnings, cash benefits, participation in 
the SSI program, and health expenses.
description: The 1982 NBS was a nationally representative, 
 cross-sectional household survey using samples randomly selected from 
 the Social Security Administration's Master Beneficiary Record (MBR). 
 The 1991 NBF reinterviewed the original sample persons in the NBS or 
surviving spouses of deceased original sample persons.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Original Respondent Data
DS2: Surviving Spouses Data
DS3: Administrative Data
description: (1) All data for the NBDS are matchable using the 
 variable CASE, which is a unique number for each original sample 
 respondent common across all data files: the NBS, the NBF for original 
 sample respondents, the NBF for surviving spouses of original sample 
 respondents, and the administrative data. Surviving spouses have the 
 same case number as the original sample respondents. (2) Additional 
hardcopy documentation is available upon request from ICPSR.