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SSI for the Aged and the Problem of 'Take-Up'

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Author Info

  • Todd E. Elder

    (Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations)

  • Elizabeth T. Powers

    (Institute of Government and Public Affairs)

Abstract

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides an income and health care safety net for the elderly poor. The phenomenon of apparently eligible households that do not enroll in, or 'take up' SSI has been noted as a severe problem since the program's inception in 1974. This paper examines SSI eligibility, applications, and participation in the aged population from 1984 (the most recent year analyzed in the literature to date) through 1997. We are fortunate to have administrative data on SSI use that is linked to various panels of the SIPP. We use this information to estimate the SSI-aged application choice. The key findings from the earlier literature are sensitive with respect to exact sample specification, alternative approaches to imputing the expected SSI benefit, and more detailed information on application and receipt culled from administrative files. Our findings suggest that cash benefits may be less influential, and Medicaid access through SSI more influential, than previously estimated.

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File URL: http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/Papers/pdf/wp076.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center in its series Working Papers with number wp076.

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Length: 60 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp076

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  1. Aaron Yelowitz, 1996. "Using the Medicare Buy-In Program to Estimate the Effect of Medicaid on SSI - Participation," UCLA Economics Working Papers 753, UCLA Department of Economics.
  2. Rebecca M. Blank & Patricia Ruggles, 1996. "When Do Women Use Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Food Stamps? The Dynamics of Eligibility Versus Participation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(1), pages 57-89.
  3. Moffitt, Robert, 1983. "An Economic Model of Welfare Stigma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1023-35, December.
  4. Hill, Daniel H, 1990. "An Endogenously-Switching Ordered-Response Model of Information, Eligibility and Participation in SSI," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 368-71, May.
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Cited by:
  1. Helen Levy & David Weir, 2007. "Take-Up of Medicare Part D and the SSA Subsidy: Early Results from the Health and Retirement Study," Working Papers wp163, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
  2. Todd Elder & Elizabeth Powers, 2007. "A Longitudinal Analysis of Entries and Exits of the Low-Income Elderly to and from the Supplemental Security Income Program," Working Papers wp156, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
  3. Helen Levy & David Weir, 2009. "Take-Up of Medicare Part D: Results from the Health and Retirement Study," NBER Working Papers 14692, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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