Is There a Safety Net for Surveys

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial mid-year changes in the landscape of certain social safety net programs in the United States. Initial analysis of the 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data showed that they did not fully reflect documented volatility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and unemployment insurance. In response to these data concerns, we developed a supplemental public-use research file. This research file contains alternate versions of SNAP and UI estimates derived using experimental edit and imputation processes. This research file does not replace the 2021 SIPP Public-Use File but is instead released to promote conversation about these estimates and the processes by which they were derived to improve future estimation of these and other social welfare and social insurance programs.