National Survey of SSI Children and Families (NSCF)
Objective
The National Survey of SSI Children and Families (NSCF) collected data on children with special health care needs and their families who received or applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The Social Security Administration (SSA) conducted this survey to: (1) provide information on the characteristics, experiences, and needs of SSI child applicants, recipients, and their families, and (2) evaluate the effects of welfare reform on children who received or applied for SSI. As the first national survey of SSI children since 1978, the NSCF was designed to provide more detailed and a substantially greater breadth of information about this population than was available from other sources of information. As a result, the NSCF data offered valuable opportunities to SSA and policy analysts in other agencies and research institutions to study policy issues affecting children receiving SSI payments.
Status
Data collection for the NSCF was completed in 2002, and a final report was issued in April 2004 examining the survey results and comparing them with data on SSI recipients collected from other surveys. In collaboration with its contractors, SSA produced NSCF data files and documentation in 2004 and 2012.
In 1999, SSA designed the NSCF with advice from an expert panel and technical assistance provided by Mathematica Policy Research (MPR), the research firm that SSA contracted to conduct the survey. The NSCF was comprised of a nationally representative sample of children who: (1) were recipients of SSI either at the time of welfare reform (i.e., December 1996) or in December 2000, or (2) were not recipients at either of these time points but had been a recipient at some time previously or had applied for SSI and had an application date that was after January 1, 1992. (For analytic, logistical, and cost reasons, children in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the United States Trust territories were excluded from the survey population.) Data collection began in July 2001 using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), which was supplemented by in-person interviews using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). CATI and CAPI data collection was completed in August 2002. In all, respondents for 8,726 children and young adults who had experience with the SSI program—either as current beneficiaries, former beneficiaries, or applicants who never received benefits—were interviewed, with a weighted response rate of 74.4 percent.
The NSCF collected data on the demographic characteristics, impairment status, functional limitations, household income, parental employment status, SSI payments, social welfare benefit receipt, health insurance coverage, and use of health services for child SSI recipients. In 2004, SSA, with support from MPR, released an initial Public Use File (PUF), a Restricted Use File (RUF), and related survey documentation. The RUF is the most comprehensive version of the NSCF survey data and includes confidential respondent information such as geographic data and SSA administrative data. In 2010, SSA withdrew the 2004 PUF file from the public domain due to changes in SSA’s policies concerning disclosure risk for survey respondents. In 2011, SSA contracted with Westat to review the file for disclosure risk and to develop a new version of the PUF, which was issued by SSA for public use in 2012.
Estimating the Size and Characteristics of the SSI Child Population: A Comparison Between the NSCF and Three National Surveys: Final Report (April 2004)
National Survey of SSI Children and Families Final Options Report (July 2012)
Public Use Files:
Related Documentation:
Not applicable.