Data Description - Health and Retirement Study
Contents
1. Postal service Health and Retirement Study The Institute for Social Research The University of Michigan P O Box 1248 Ann Arbor MI 48106 1248 FAX 734 647 1186 August 2015 11 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Appendix A Master Benefit Record Information I General Information SSA administrative data are available for those HRS respondents who gave their signed permission to the HRS to obtain their administrative data from federal agencies and for whom SSA was able to validate a Social Security number SSN and locate appropriate records In accordance with the governing Memorandum of Understanding benefit information for the time period ending in December 2008 was released HRS records were extracted after that date with SSA making every effort to reconstruct all benefit information available prior to January 2009 Each benefit record set in this release has two parts The first part describes the benefit if any that the respondent was receiving as of the most recent permission date December 2008 and the historical data for that entitlement The second part contains information for dually entitled beneficiaries otherwise e g for a retired worker with no other current benefits these variables are missing Variable names for fields in the second part start with O otherwise the metadata information for these fields duplicates the first part Please see the discussion below on dual entitlements Social Security data in these records2. 10 4h Section G Respondent Payment History 10 4i Section J Respondent Type of Benefits ai ara enne nhan nsn ener 10 5 If You Need to Know MoOre rereeee eren rsen e reete anna na than a ana saam asa IE ME PRIN IE MERE DA IE AERE NIE NEP aA RE MER ao sE sm soa 10 HRS Internet SIte id 10 5b Contact INFOrMAation ccccccccccsssssssececececsesesseaeeeeecesseseeaeaeeeeeceseeseeaeeeseescesseseaaeseeeesseeesaaaeeeesessensaes 11 Appendix A Master Benefit Record Information eese eese tete tene tn nnnm enata ta tanus 12 I General InfortratiOn det ttt iive tie tt ate eine iad 12 Il Basic Monthly Benefit Information ccccccccccccessssssnscecececessesnaaeseeececesseeaeseceessesseeaaeseceessesseseaaeees 12 Table 3 Type of Benefit Codes a i A aAA AA nhan 13 II Other Important Variables noti tite ete ett eite te i 14 IV Questions and Answers about the HRS Benefit Files ccessscccccecessessnseceeeeecessessaeeeeeeseessessaaeees 15 1 Why does it appear that the benefit record contains duplicate data elements 15 2 What is dual entitlement and how I find them esses trn nnns sse 15 3 Are dual entitlement benefits alw
3. sas program statement files and da data files To create a SAS system file load the sas file into the SAS Program Editor If the sas file is located in c BenDspXyear sas and the data file is located in c BenDspXyear data you can run the file as is A SAS system file will be saved to directory c BenDspXyear sas If the files are not located in the specified directories you will need to edit the SAS file to reflect the proper path names prior to running the file 3b 2 Using the Files with SPSS To create an SPSS system file for a particular data set two file types must be present for that data set sps program statement files and da data files To create an SPSS system file open the sps file in SPSS August 2015 6 XyrdSpBenDD2012 as an SPSS Syntax File If the sps file is located in c BenDspXyear spss and the data file is located in c BenDspXyear data you can run the file as is An SPSS system file sav will be saved to directory c BenDspXyear spss If the files are not located in the specified directories you will need to edit the sps file to reflect the proper path names prior to running the file 3b 3 Using the Files with Stata To use Stata with a particular data set the following three file types must be present for that data set dct files do files and da data files Files with the suffix da contain the raw data for Stata to read Files with the suffix dct are Stata dicti
4. for these time series variables Sec B BPD OBPD 1962 2003 1962 2012 Sec C MBC OMBC 1962 1992 1962 1999 1962 2003 1962 2012 Sec D MBA OMBA 1962 1992 1962 1999 1962 2003 1962 2012 Sec E MBP OMBP 1962 1992 1962 1999 1962 2003 1962 2012 Sec F LAF OLAF 1962 1992 1962 1999 1962 2003 1962 2012 Sec G DPAY MED 1984 1999 1984 2003 1984 2012 Sec J TOB OTOB 1962 2003 1962 2012 Note Not all variables are available for all respondents in all years Data availability depends on when the most recent information was obtained from SSA for a given respondent Thus if SOURCE is coded 1993 for a given respondent then that respondent gave permission in 1993 or 1994 for HRS to obtain benefits information from SSA covering the period 1962 through 1992 August 2015 26 XyrdSpBenDD2012
5. 01 to 4 99 are rounded down and absolute values ending in 5 00 to 9 99 are rounded up Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA 4f Section E Monthly Benefit Paid This file contains monthly benefit paid information for deceased spouses of respondents who signed consent forms in 1993 1995 1998 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year The MBP is the MBC minus the Part B or SMI premium August 2015 9 XyrdSpBenDD2012 if any and reflects the dollar amount of the check or direct deposit that the respondent actually received If the Ledger Account File LAF status in the month is C or C2 then a benefit has been paid on that account for that month See Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA In order to preserve respondent confidentiality the data fields in this section are rounded as follows A code of zero 0 represents a true zero dollar amount Values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 00 while values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 Amounts with an absolute value of more than 10 00 are rounded to the nearest 10 00 dollars Absolute values ending in 0 01 to 4 99 are rounded down and absolute values ending in 5 00 to 9 99 are rounded
6. adjustments are made and the 1985 TOBs and MBAs will be changed to reflect what should have happened in 1985 Second a benefit for a particular month is actually paid in the following month Source Office of Research and Statistics Social Security Administration Panis Constantijn Euller Roald Grant Cynthia Bradley Melissa Peterson Christin E Hirscher Randall and Paul Steinberg 2000 SSA Program Data User s Manual Rand Corporation Contract PM 973 SSA SSA does not have information in an electronic form for benefits prior to 1962 Thus some early benefits are not documented in these records August 2015 12 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Table 3 Type of Benefit TOB Codes not currently paid for the month retired worker disabled worker aged spouse spouse caring for minor children aged widow er widow er caring for minor children disabled widow er adult disabled child student child minor child 11 12 other 13 denied 99 Medicare covered not an OASDI recipient A The Monthly Benefit Amount MBA is determined by the Primary Insurance Amount PIA It is the amount payable after reduction of the PIA if necessary for age family maximum earnings in excess of the earnings test the government pension offset affecting widows and other reasons but before any deductions for the SMI Medicare Part B premium Any increase due to the delayed retirement credit is also reflected in the MBA Howeve
7. are extracted from files designed for program administration and not for research They are inherently not user friendly and are easy to misunderstand To a great extent that is because the programs are far more complicated than they appear initially Users are urged to review the documentation carefully and to consult basic program information Help is available on the Social Security Administration Web site in particular see Social Security Program Rules In addition see the Social Security Bulletin s Annual Statistical Supplement and the RAND Corporation s SSA Program Data User s Manual Panis et al 2000 II Basic Monthly Benefit Information From January 1962 through December 2008 benefit variables are available on a monthly basis Monthly Benefit Amount MBA Monthly Benefit Credited MBC and the Monthly Benefit Paid MBP However these benefit amount variables should only be used in conjunction with the Type of Benefit TOB Table 1 below variable constructed by the SSA Research Office for each month The TOB is a function of several administrative variables including the ledger account file LAF variable for the month Two important general points should be made about the Social Security benefit records First the benefit records reflect what should have happened for a particular month For example if SSA determines in 1986 that a beneficiary s 1985 earnings exceeded amounts set by the earnings test then retroactive payment
8. information reflects the status of the deceased spouse s MBR record at the time of data extraction keyed on HHID and PN See While a specific folder arrangement is not required for using HRS files we have traditionally suggested a directory structure for the Windows environment By using this directory structure you will not have to change the path name references in your data descriptor files If you do not use Windows or if you use a different directory structure just change the directory references in the program files August 2015 5 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Ben2A d below Year level January through December data contain month by month information derived from the historical record and are keyed on HHID PN and YEAR Ben2B d Ben2C d Ben2D d Ben2E d Ben2F d 26 d Ben2J This structure mirrors that of the Respondent Cross Year Benefits data set as illustrated below 3e Program Statements Each data file comes with associated SPSS SAS or Stata program statements to read the data Files containing SPSS statements are named with an sps extension those with SAS statements with an sas extension and those with Stata statements with do and dct extensions The files are keyed on Household Identifier Other Person Number and Sub Household Identifier See the appendix for usage details 3b 1 Using the Files with SAS To create a SAS system file for a particular data set two file types must be present for that data set
9. up 4g Section F LAF Status This file contains monthly ledger account file status information for deceased spouses of respondents who signed consent forms in 1993 1995 1998 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year See Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA 4h Section G Respondent Payment History This file contains monthly information on Monthly Benefits Paid and Monthly HI SMI Charges for deceased spouses of respondents who signed consent forms in 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file contains data for years 1984 2012 and is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year See Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA In order to preserve respondent confidentiality the data fields in this section are rounded as follows A code of zero 0 represents a true zero dollar amount Values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 00 while values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 Amounts with an absolute value of more than 10 00 are rounded to the nearest 10 00 dollars Absolute values ending in 0 01 to 4 99 are rounded down and absolute values ending in 5 00 to 9 99 are rounded up 4i Section J Respondent Type of Benefits This fil
10. 60 with their benefits reduced and their full retirement age is also dependent on their date of birth but uses a different reduction factor than retiring workers www ssa gov survivorchartred htm Those who retired after reaching the full retirement age have their benefits increased because of the delayed retirement credit DRC Calculating age at initial entitlement using the DOB and DOEI can generally identify early retirement cases For most cases if the primary s MBA gt PIA then it s DRC case For those not dually entitled the MBA is less likely to exceed the PIA for reasons other than delayed retirement The DRCY the Delayed Retirement Computation Year and the CRIMC or Current Cumulative Retirement Increment Months might also help in establishing DRC cases However we are uncertain of the usefulness of these variables for research 11 How can I find respondents who worked after first taking Social Security retirement benefits This is not possible with the TOB patterns It requires access the ledger account file LAF code Respondents who had benefits fully withheld due to the primary s earnings are identified by LAFs and O LAFs of S1 and S2 for the worker and LAFs and O LAFs of S3 and S5 for auxiliaries In addition for the HRS LAF codes were modified with a value equaling C2 to indicate that a partial benefit was paid for that month because there were earnings from work in excess of the earnings test that month For histor
11. EE GANE drea E 4 3a 2 UNIX LINUX Environment occ eee ccceeseceescssecssssesceessececsessucsesessesuusececesssucsssesecsuseeceesessuseesesecassesessessseseseeeeees 4 3a 3 Macintosh OS X Environment 10 4 and ADOVE ccccccceesccceessececsessececesssececsaeeecsessececseseceesaeeeceesseceesseseeees 4 Table 1 Contents of Distribution Package essere eene nennen nennen nnne nnns nnn 5 3b zFileStr ct ke er Nt amete Es 5 3e Program Statements c nece eT Rex ee MI iret UN S 6 3b 1 Using the Files with SAS rr e ea eae co De HN ee b UY RUE ERN AY EHE EXER 6 3b 2 Using the Files with SPSS 6 retener ere re PET eere coe sure eee ene eva eue exem e sene Eee dee venae tere eaves 6 3b 3 Using the Files With Statai oet eR RR ERE REDE TERR RR ER HERR e PETIERE 7 4 Cross Year Benefit Data Set nine eei cede eed 7 Aa OVENWIEW PR ees 7 Table 2 Record Counts cr ea eret ue aT e e VER IER E IER ERIS 8 Ab Section A Primary Beneficiary and Other Insured Respondent 8 Ac Section B Benefits Paid Designation Indicator nennen enne nnne 9 Ad Section C Monthly Benefit Amount esses nn nnns sns aiaei riiai ra asas s nnns 9 Section D Monthly Benefit Credited ne an aast iE EE ARO ARET EEE RS 9 Af Section E Monthly Benefit Paid 9 4g Section FLAF Status tee retention iiec R RA R
12. HEALTH AND RETIREMENT STUDY Deceased Spouse Cross Year Benefits Data Description and Usage Version 4 1 August 2015 To the Restricted Data Investigator This restricted data set is intended for exclusive use by you and the persons specified in the Agreement for Use of Restricted Data from the Health and Retirement Study and or the Supplemental Agreement with Research Staff for Use of Restricted Data from the Health and Retirement Study If there are any questions about this data set and its use refer to the HRS Restricted Data Web Site at http hrsonline isr umich edu rda or contact the HRS Help Desk hrsquest isr umich edu by email This document may not be reproduced without the written consent of the staff of the Health and Retirement Study the Institute for Social Research the University of Michigan Table of Contents 1 Overview and Acknowledgmentts 3 XUgcudunudiriucee c 3 23 Restricted Data Agreement x e evt ai tetti but Nt tmd 3 2b Access to Restricted Data unt ettet te oer oett e et Sete etra 3 2c Publications Based on Restricted Data ra nnns saris 4 3i Seu Dunedin cosi cula Dri iios A E un di Dav on IE a LUV DN 4 3a DIStrIDUtl OH Set 2a acer rete aut naue tete 4 33 1 Windows Ehnvironmehlt iore ee ete Feet ee neue eb dede eo e uuo eb Re e UP NEUE
13. Payment History Update System PHUS which is part of the RSDI Master Beneficiary Record Each DIRECT PAY variable is the actual amount that a beneficiary received in a check or direct deposit in a specific month unlike MBA MBC and MBP which reflect for which month an amount is payable As an example the December 1992 MBP is reflected in the January 1993 DIRECT PAY variable In order to determine taxable income the corresponding occurrence of the Medicare Part B premium should be added to the DIRECT PAY variable this is the equivalent of the MBC This has been calculated in the SSINCPAID which is recorded from January 1984 through December 2008 SSA does not have information in an electronic form for benefits prior to 1962 Thus some early benefits are not documented in these records August 2015 13 XyrdSpBenDD2012 In the SSA files supplied for restricted HRS users the benefit variables have been rounded to the nearest 10 III Other Important Variables Two important variables are the month and year of initial entitlement DOEI and the month and year of current or most recent entitlement DOEC The date of initial entitlement is the date of the earliest entitlement on the particular record It is never overwritten The data of current entitlement is the date of the most recent entitlement on the particular record Identified for each date is the beneficiary identification code BIC and the type of benefit TOB which show why t
14. ays combined eene nnne nennen 15 4 Can there be a second part to the benefit record even if there is no current dual entitlement 15 5 How doll identify which respondents were paid benefits for the most recent month or any specific Ter pia opas T i 15 6 What is the PIA and how does it enne enne nnn ness nent 16 7 What do benefit amount and PIA fields mean for dually entitled cases sess 16 8 What about women who receive benefits based on someone else s work record 16 9 What other variables might be particularly useful to understand benefits received by women 16 August 2015 1 XyrdSpBenDD2012 10 Which respondents took early Social Security retirement benefits and which respondents delayed their retiremelit Leu esce ehe tete e tute eene ei 17 11 How can I find respondents who worked after first taking Social Security retirement benefits 17 12 What should we know about suspensions and terminations sess eene 18 13 What information is available about Social Security disability benefits 18 Appendix B Data Availability by Source for Secti
15. benefit the part of the total benefit received as a spouse needs to be distinguished from the part received as a retired worker August 2015 16 XyrdSpBenDD2012 on survivor benefits It ensures that a survivor benefit does not exceed the benefit the deceased worker would be receiving if alive Because of this provision much of the reduction for early retirement of the deceased worker passes through to their surviving spouses PIARA or the PIA reduction amount may also be useful It shows if the person had been entitled under another account prior to their retirement account In the past and still today for widow er s born before 1928 those who had previously received benefits as a widow er receive a reduced benefit in retirement For example a widow might become a beneficiary at age 60 and receive widow benefits until she converts to her own retired worker benefit at age full retirement age It used to be the case that a benefit reduction amount would continue in retirement But now except for widow er s born before 1928 the actuarial reduction isn t carried over at full retirement age 10 Which respondents took early Social Security retirement benefits and which respondents delayed their retirement For the HRS cohorts the full retirement age in the Social Security program is dependent on the respondent s date of birth Workers retiring earlier as early as age 62 have their benefits reduced Surviving spouses can retire as early as age
16. ded to 10 Amounts with an absolute value of more than 10 00 are rounded to the nearest 10 00 dollars Absolute values ending in 0 01 to 4 99 are rounded down and absolute values ending in 5 00 to 9 99 are rounded up Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA 4e Section D Monthly Benefit Credited This file contains monthly benefit credited information for deceased spouses of respondents who signed consent forms in 1993 1995 1998 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year The MBC is the amount the beneficiary would pay taxes on Under law the MBC is calculated by first subtracting the Part B Medicare or SMI Premium if any from the MBA then rounding the result down to the nearest whole dollar and adding the part B premium to the rounded amount If the Ledger Account File LAF status in the month is C or C2 then a benefit has been paid on that account for that month In order to preserve respondent confidentiality the data fields in this section are rounded as follows A code of zero 0 represents a true zero dollar amount Values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 00 while values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 Amounts with an absolute value of more than 10 00 are rounded to the nearest 10 00 dollars Absolute values ending in 0
17. dness Established Indicator Dual Entitlement Status code Other Account Number Other Office Code 6 Representative Payee Data Primary Guardian Status 8 Latest Amount Offset Data Primary AMOFSTOP Amount Offset End Date 9 Latest Government Pension Offset Data Primary August 2015 21 XyrdSpBenDD2012 SMISTART SMI Enrollment Effective Month SMTPCODE SMI Third Party Identification Code 1 Latest PIA History Primary Primary Insurance Effective Date Type of Maximum DAA Drug Addiction Alcoholism Code X X X Date of Disability Offset MCDOE02 MCDOE12 Date of Entitlement to DIB 02 12 Hearing Decision Date August 2015 22 XyrdSpBenDD2012 ODOECTOB ODOEITOB Other Date of Death her Date of Current Most Recent Entitlement to f Other Type of Benefit at DOEC Other Type of Benefit at DOEI Race of Other Beneficiary Other Type of Claim 01 20 2 Current Beneficiary Claim Data Other Secondary OBCLMDOET Other Historical Current Entitlement Code Other Historical Date of Entitlement Termination 3 Latest Beneficiary Denial Disallowance Data Other Secondary ODENYCEC OINSDBL OINSDDCF OINSDHAS OINSDSHA August 2015 Other Historical Current Entitlement Code Other Statutory Blindness Established Indicator Other Date Claim Filed Other Dib Test Has Quarters of Coverage Required Other Currently Insured Has QCS 23 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Other Dual Entitleme
18. do benefit amount and PIA fields mean for dually entitled cases To determine monthly benefits either MBA MBC or MBP when OTBEN I look at the monthly LAF status in both portions of the record If the LAF indicates a benefit in any month then a benefit has been paid on that account for that month In the cases where LAF and SLAF both show a benefit add the money fields together from both parts of the record to get the total amount paid for the month However in most dually entitled cases once the primary on the other account has either stopped working or is deceased the monthly second part LAF code would be A for no benefit and all money would be combined on the primary account that is shown on the first part of the record In such cases ignore the benefit amount given in the second part of the record for the month except to get the historical MBA or MBC In virtually all of the cases the PIA on the first part of the dual record is based upon the respondent s own earnings and the PIA in the second part of the record is based upon their deceased spouse s earnings Sometimes someone is dually entitled as a wife husband and a widow er but not as a retired worker In such cases the PIA in the first part of the record would be based on the earnings of the respondent s current spouse while the PIA in the 2nd part of the record would be based on the earnings of the respondent s deceased spouse 8 What about women who receive benefits based on so
19. e HRS 1 Benefits for the disabled worker which often referred to as disability insurance benefits or disabled worker s benefits These can be distinguished by a DOEI TOB DOEC TOB code of 2 Disability DI benefits awarded to the HRS population are automatically converted to retired worker beneficiary status at the beneficiary s normal retirement age A DOEI TOB code of 2 paired with a DOEC TOB code of 1 identifies respondents who were previously entitled to DI benefits 2 Benefits for a disabled widow er or disabled surviving divorced spouse These benefits apply to disabled widow er s or disabled surviving divorced spouses age 50 59 who meet the other requirements for entitlement to widow er s insurance benefits These can be distinguished by a DOEI TOB DOEC TOB code of 7 3 Benefits for a disabled child of a worker entitled to disabled worker s or retirement benefits or of an insured worker who died These benefits are payable as early as age 18 and there is no upper age limit They are referred to as childhood disability benefits because the child must have become disabled before reaching age 22 These can be distinguished by a DOEI TOB DOEC TOB code of 8 Other important DI variables on the HRS file include DLM Date Disability Requirement Last Met August 2015 18 XyrdSpBenDD2012 DDO Date of Disability Onset DOED Date of Deemed Entitlement to DIB DDBC Date Disability Cessation LOD Level of Denial Code RDD Reason for Di
20. e contains monthly type of benefit information retired worker disabled worker aged spouse etc for deceased spouses of respondents who signed consent forms in 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year See Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA 5 If You Need to Know More This document is intended to serve as a brief overview and to provide guidelines for using the Deceased Spouse Cross Year Benefits data sets If you have questions or concerns that are not adequately covered here or on our Web site or if you have any comments please contact us We will do our best to provide answers 5a HRS Internet Site The Health and Retirement Study maintains a Web site http hrsonline isr umich edu that provides access to public release data questionnaires codebooks sample and response rate documentation a August 2015 10 XyrdSpBenDD2012 bibliography user guides and extensive background information If you want to find out more about restricted data products and procedures visit the restricted data section of the HRS Web site http hrsonline isr umich edu rda 5b Contact Information If you need to contact us you may do so by one of the methods listed below Internet Help Desk at our Web site http hrsonline isr umich edu help E mail hrsquestions umich edu
21. econdary Other o Monthly Benefits Paid o Monthly HI SMI Charges e Type of Benefit Primary and Secondary Other Table 2 Record Counts Primary Cohort Permission Set Total 1993 1999 2004 2006 NA 1 1 HRS 0 0 241 447 688 AHEAD 249 0 23 207 479 CODA 0 10 28 135 173 War Baby 0 0 4 37 41 EBB 0 0 11 44 55 MBB 0 0 0 26 26 Total 249 10 308 896 1463 4b Section A Primary Beneficiary and Other Insured Respondent This section ben2A_d contains data from the Master Beneficiary Record MBR primary beneficiary and other secondary insured at the respondent level As noted above the most recent information for each deceased spouse is reported This file and accompanying year level files contains information for deceased spouses it is keyed on the Household Identifier and Person Number of the respondent linked to the deceased spouse and matches the 2012 Tracker file All payment fields have been rounded to the nearest 10 except entries originally between 1 and 10 which have been recoded to 10 Entries originally coded as remained If any entry was less than O it was recoded to 1 With the exception of certain date fields all alphabetic variables have been converted to numeric values In such cases the SSA alphabetic codes have been incorporated into the code description See Appendix B for an overview of the information contained in Section A August 2015 8 XyrdSpBenDD2012 4c Section B Benefits Paid Des
22. ent and you will be sent the restricted data product s by the HRS Note access codes for your restricted data product s are sent separately If institutional or physical circumstances change e g new persons added to the project hardware software changes or office moves you should contact the HRS in order to modify the underlying agreement A yearly re certification of your restricted data agreement is required if you wish to continue with analysis of the data after the expiration of the initial agreement you will need to submit a renewal request Note An HRS agent will periodically audit you in order to ensure that all conditions of the Restricted Data Agreement are being met August 2015 3 XyrdSpBenDD2012 2c Publications Based on Restricted Data Your restricted data agreement specifies that you will inform HRS of any papers publications or presentations based on this restricted data set Please send a copy of such publications in PDF format via e mail to hrsquestions umich edu with Attn Papers and Publications in the subject line If you wish you may include a bibliographical reference As an alternative you may transmit publications in paper format by postal mail Health and Retirement Study Attn Papers and Publications The Institute for Social Research Room 3410 P O Box 1248 Ann Arbor Michigan 48106 1248 3 Setup 3a Distribution Set This data set is packaged for distribution in a ZIP file XyrDspBen z
23. ere paid benefits for December 2003 the last occurrence of O MBP 0 and the last occurrence of LAF should show a value of C or C2 partial payment due to withholding as a result of the work test In every case the benefit for a given month is the benefit that the respondent would receive in the following month Thus the last occurrence of O MBP shows the amount the respondent would have August 2015 15 XyrdSpBenDD2012 gotten in January 2009 if the respondent were also in current pay status Note that the benefit paid for December includes the cost of living adjustment effective for that month and received in January 6 What is the PIA and how does it change The PIA or primary insurance amount is the monthly amount payable to a retired worker who begins to receive benefits at the full retirement age between 65 and 67 for the 2004 HRS sample or to a disabled worker who has never received a retirement benefit reduced for age The PIA which is related to the worker s average indexed monthly earnings is also the amount used as a base for computing all types of benefits payable on the worker s earnings record It is increased with every benefit rate increase even for terminated benefit records It also may increase as a result of a recomputation that credits the worker with additional earnings after initial benefit receipt Historical PIAs and the associated PIA effective dates PIED are given in up to 30 fields on the file 7 What
24. g a widow benefit based on her deceased husband s work in covered employment ODOEC 121982 and ODOECTOB 5 She would have a two part record describing her benefits The first part would show her retired worker benefit and the second part would show her wife benefit from her initial entitlement through the month prior to termination and her widow benefit from the date of her current entitlement through 12 93 Her husband s date of death would be shown by ODODP 121982 on the second part of her record Dimes rounding down was effective with the June 1982 benefit Prior to that the Part B premium amount on the MBR only reflected the current amount being paid by the beneficiary and did not reflect the historical premium amounts Effective with June 1982 the historical SMI amount variable HSA not included was created and associated with the history field that the premium change was effective To be consistent since all three variables can be processed as an array using a single subscript we have kept all three variables 8 In SSA records the DOEC is overwritten whenever the TOB changes e g a disabled worker to a retired worker a young spouse widow with children in care to an aged spouse widow There would be no termination recorded in history if the DOEC for the widow s benefit is the same month as the termination of the aged wife benefit August 2015 14 XyrdSpBenDD2012 IV Questions and Answers about the HRS Benefit Files 1 Why doe
25. giving a new history field effective with the benefit rate increase month In contrast records for terminated LAF T beneficiaries show a PIA increase with every benefit rate increase but do not have their MBA updated Program terminations may be for periods of temporary recovery from periods of disability or time lapses due to conversions of young spouses widows with child in care to aged spouses widows For respondents not in current pay status DOST and DOCA may be useful However both fields are deleted when the person resumes current pay status The DOST is the date a suspension termination action should have taken place while the DOCA is the date when the suspension termination action actually was applied to stop the payment If the DOCA shows a later date than the DOST an overpayment occurred For example an aged spouse beneficiary who was divorced in July 1992 and who was not entitled to divorced spouse benefits might not notify SSA until September 1992 of the divorce DOST would be 071992 and DOCA would be 091992 There would have been a 2 month overpayment that would require repayment There is nothing in our data extract that shows if the overpayment was recovered As noted for past periods of suspensions terminations look to the O LAF codes not the DOST DOCA 13 What information is available about Social Security disability benefits There are three types of Social Security disability benefits among the respondents in th
26. greements between HRS and SSA This meant that information was obtained only for the time period covered by the agreement In 2006 and thereafter the terms of the permission agreement allow HRS to obtain biennial updates of earnings and benefits data through the year specified Since each new record set obtained from SSA reflects the most recent information available the latest version of the Deceased Spouse Cross Year Benefits dataset will always be most accurate If current information for a given respondent is missing the most recent data elements from past datasets are used See Appendix A for a detailed explanation of Master Beneficiary Record data usage Three sets of files are included in this distribution package They contain information for deceased spouses on e Benefits Primary and Secondary Other o General Information Control Data Benefit Data Current Beneficiary Claim Data Latest Beneficiary Denial Disallowance Data August 2015 7 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Latest Current Insured Status Dual Data Representative Payee Data Delayed Retirement Credit Data Latest Amount Offset Data Latest Government Pension Offset Data Latest Medicare Date Latest PIA History Latest Disability Data Benefit Paid Designation Indicator Monthly Benefit Amount Based on PIA Monthly Benefit Credited MBA rounded down Monthly Benefit Paid MBC Part B Premium o Monthly Ledger Account File LAF Status e Payment History Primary and S
27. haracter string that you received via e mail The output will be the files listed in Table 1 The built in Windows decompression utility will not process AES 256bit encrypted zip files it halts with an unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file August 2015 4 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Table 1 Contents of Distribution Package Directory File Type c BenDspXyear xyrbendsp zip zip file c BenDspXyear docs ben2A d txt Codebook files ASCII ben2B d txt text ben2C d txt ben2D d txt ben2E d txt ben2F d txt ben2G d txt ben2J d txt c BenDspXyear data ben2A d da n 1463 Data files ASCII text ben2B d da n 59106 ben2C d da 67454 ben2D d da n 67454 ben2E d da 67454 ben2F d da n 67205 ben2G d da n 52450 ben2J d da n 59106 c BenDspxyear sas ben2A d sas SAS program statements ben2B d sas ben2C d sas ben2D d sas ben2E d sas ben2F d sas ben2G d sas ben2J d sas c MBenDspXyearNspssN ben2A d sps SPSS program statements ben2B d sps ben2C d sps ben2D d sps ben2E d sps ben2F d sps ben2G d sps ben2J d sps c BenDspXyear stata ben2A d do dct Stata dictionary and do ben2B d do dct files ben2C d do dct ben2D d do dct 2 d do dct ben2F d do dct ben2G d do dct ben2J d do dct 3b File Structure The files contained in this dataset contain information stored on two levels Deceased spouse information linked to Respondent and to Respondent Year Respondent level
28. he benefit was received For example DOECBIC A and DOECTOB I would indicate a retired worker beneficiary as of the current entitlement DOEIBIC A and DOEITOB 2 would indicate a disabled worker beneficiary as of the initial entitlement Another important variable is the primary insurance amount PIA the base for computing all types of benefits payable on the record If BIC A the PIA is the primary insurance amount based on the person s own work in Social Security covered employment If BIC is not equal to A then the PIA is based on work in covered employment by someone else for example the person s spouse or former spouse Also included is the month and year of the primary s death DODP The primary is the person on whose work in Social Security covered employment the benefit is based Another field BDOD shows the date the beneficiary died The beneficiary date of birth DOB according to SSA records and as used for benefit eligibility is also available No attempt has been made to make the date consistent with the date of birth as reported in the HRS survey Example As of December 1980 Mrs Jones began receiving retired worker benefits based on her own work in Social Security covered employment DOEI 121980 and DOEITOB I and an aged spouse benefit based on her husband s work in covered employment ODOEI 121980 and ODOEITOB 3 In December of 1982 her husband died Her spouse benefit would be terminated and she would begin receivin
29. ical amounts permitted without reductions in benefits see Table 2 A29 in the Social Security Bulletin Annual Statistical Supplement The result can be imperfect For example a worker could file for benefits at age 62 then go back to work and exceed the earnings test until age 65 In that case the DOEI and DOB would indicate an early retirement at age 62 but that could be misleading depending on the analysis For many cases if the primary s MBA PIA then it s also probably an early retirement case However that strategy isn t perfect because many things can affect the MBA For example the MBA could be less than the PIA because of partial withholdings for the earnings test receipt of worker s comp the government offset affecting widows or repayments by beneficiaries for past overpayments August 2015 17 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Note that there will be no information for respondents who work but have earnings below the retirement earnings test In 1992 for example respondents age 65 or older could have earnings below 10 200 and not be affected by the test 12 What should we know about suspensions and terminations The LAF codes would be S or T for a month without benefits In periods of suspension LAF S beneficiaries are still entitled to benefits but benefits are withheld for some reason e g during an address change In a period of suspension the PIA is increased with every benefit rate increase and the MBA is recomputed
30. ignation Indicator This file contains monthly benefits paid indicator information for deceased spouses of respondents who signed consent forms in 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year See Appendix C for details on the relationship between variables contained in this section and the source of the original data obtained from SSA 4d Section C Monthly Benefit Amount This file contains monthly benefit amount information for deceased spouses of who signed consent forms in 1993 1995 1998 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010 or 2012 The file is keyed on Household Identifier Person Number and Year The Monthly Benefit Amount MBA is determined by the PIA It is the amount payable after reduction of the PIA if necessary for age family maximum earnings in excess of the earnings test the government pension offset affecting widows and other reasons but before any deductions of the Medicare Part B or SMI premium Any increase due to the delayed retirement credit is also reflected in the MBA If the Ledger Account File LAF status in the month is C or C2 then a benefit has been paid on that account for that month In order to preserve respondent confidentiality the data fields in this section are rounded as follows A code of zero 0 represents a true zero dollar amount Values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are recoded to 10 00 while values in the range 0 01 through 10 00 are reco
31. ip In order to keep the contents secure the ZIP file has been encrypted using WinZIP 256 bit AES encryption Extract the data file the program statement file that matches your analysis environment the data description this file and the codebook file If you require a special file format or experience system problems please contact the HRS Help Desk If all files are decompressed they will require approximately 100 MB of free space on your storage device 3a 1 Windows Environment Copy the ZIP file to the Windows folder where you plan to do your work Use a third party file compression decompression tool such as WinZIP or 7 zip to extract the ZIP folder contents When you are prompted for the pass phrase respond with the character string that you received via e mail The output will be the files listed in Table 1 3a 2 UNIX Linux Environment Copy the ZIP file to the folder where you plan to do your work Use the ZIP file decompression software installed on your system e g 7 zip gunzip to decrypt and extract the ZIP folder contents When you are prompted for the pass phrase respond with the character string that you received via e mail The output will be the files listed in Table 1 3a 3 Macintosh OS X Environment 10 4 x and above Copy the ZIP file to the folder where you plan to do your work and use Stuffit Expander to decrypt and extract the ZIP folder contents When you are prompted for the pass phrase respond with the c
32. meone else s work record Like dual entitlement entitlement only as an auxiliary beneficiary generally as a wife or widow occurs more frequently among women than men The law is the same for both sexes When OTBEN O and TOB is not 1 or 2 it s an auxiliary only case DOECTOB in the first part of the record would equal a 3 if the respondent received benefits as an aged spouse a 4 if the respondent received benefits as a young spouse caring for minor disabled children a 5 if she or he received them as a an aged widow er a 6 if she or he received them as a an young widow er caring for minor disabled children and a 7 if she or he received them as a disabled widow er 9 What other variables might be particularly useful to understand benefits received by women Two variables might be particularly useful in understanding women s benefits The first of them is the or type of claim code If TOC equals B or F then the widow er s benefit at DOEC is capped by the primary benefit amount of their deceased spouse The widow er s limit provision operates as a ceiling Vin such cases the benefit fields in the second part of the record show the amount in the auxiliary part of the benefit The amount due the dually entitled respondent as a worker can be calculated by subtracting the benefit in the second part from that in the first They may be useful for some analyses For example to analyze the effect of a proposal to decrease the spouse
33. nt Status code OOTPIA Other Primary Insurance Amount Other Smaller MBA reduced for FMAX ayee Data Other Secondary 8 Latest Amount Offset Data Other Secondary OAMOFSTO Other AMOUNT OFFSET END DATE nt Pension Offset Data Other Secondary Other Government Pension Monthly Start Date Other Government Pension Monthly Amount Withheld OHIPERIOD Other Hospital Insurance Enrollment Period Type OSMIBASI Other SMI Basis Type OSMISTAR Other SMI Enrollment Effective Month 1 Latest PIA History Other Secondary Other Primary Insurance Effective Date August 2015 24 XyrdSpBenDD2012 OMCDOE01 August 2015 Other Applicants Disability Cessation Other Date of Disability Offset Other Medicare Date Of Entitlement To DIB 01 12 Other Level of Denial Code Other Substantial Gainful Activity Disability Cessation 25 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Appendix C Deceased Spouse Benefits Data Availability by Source for Time Series Variables For each SOURCE category these sections contain data O Sec B 3 Benefit o s Paid 1993 No 1998 No 2004 Yes 2006 Yes Sec C Monthly Benefit Amount Yes Yes Yes Yes Sec D Monthly Benefit Credited Yes Yes Yes Yes Sec E Monthly Benefit Paid Yes Yes Yes Yes Sec F Monthly LAF Status Yes Yes Yes Yes Sec G Payment History HI SMI Charges No Yes Yes Yes Sec J Type of Benefit No No Yes Yes
34. on 20 Appendix C Deceased Spouse Benefits Data Availability by Source for Time Series Variables 26 August 2015 2 XyrdSpBenDD2012 1 Overview and Acknowledgments The Health and Retirement Study HRS is a national longitudinal study of the economic health marital and family status as well as public and private support systems of older Americans The HRS is a rich source of longitudinal cross sectional data for researchers and policymakers who study aging Funding for the Health and Retirement Study is provided by the National Institute on Aging at NIH U01AG009740 with supplemental support from the Social Security Administration The study is conducted by the Institute for Social Research ISR at the University of Michigan HRS gratefully acknowledges the special assistance of the Social Security Administration s Office of Research and Statistics for their assistance in retrieving the administrative records of HRS respondents who gave consent for those records to be used for research purposes 2 Obtaining the Data 2a Restricted Data Agreement This restricted data set is intended for exclusive use by you and the persons specified in the Agreement for Use of Restricted Data from the Health and Retirement Study and or the Supplemental Agreement with Research Staff for Use of Restricted Data from the Health and Retirement Study If you have q
35. onaries used by Stata to describe the data Files with the suffix do are short Stata programs do files which you may use to read in the data Load the do file into Stata and then submit it If the do and dct files are located in c BenDspXyear stata and the data file is located in c BenDspXyear data you can run the do file as is If the files are not located in these directories you must edit the do and dct files to reflect the proper path names before you run the files 4 Cross Year Benefit Data Set Content 4a Overview The Deceased Spouse Cross Year Benefits dataset is derived from Master Beneficiary Record MBR data for primary beneficiary and other secondary insured The inputs to this dataset were received at different points in time over the past decade from the Social Security Administration e n 1993 or 1995 for AHEAD cohort members e In 1998 or 2000 for CODA and War Baby cohort members as well as new spouses e n 2004 for EBB and HRS cohort members new spouses War Baby 1998 2000 refusers e In 2006 for respondents interviewed face to face who were not asked previously or in the case of Early Boomers refused or non response These permissions are prospective and provide for biennial updates through 2030 e In 2008 and thereafter for face to face interviews These permissions are prospective and provide for biennial updates through 2030 Prior to 2006 respondent permissions were based on separate a
36. ond part of the record 3 Are dual entitlement benefits always combined No not always If the benefits are being paid out of different trust funds retirement and disability for example then the benefits will not be combined Also if the auxiliary benefit is subject to withholding due to reasons such as the work test or the child in care provisions of the Social Security Act then benefits will not be combined If benefits are combined into a single payment then the TOB in the first part of the record identifies the type of benefit while in the second part of the record it should equal for no benefit 4 Can there be a second part to the benefit record even if there is no current dual entitlement Yes there can be Some reasons for this can be prior but not current dual entitlement entitlement to auxiliary benefits under more than one social security number being denied disallowed for primary benefits under one s own social security number while being entitled to auxiliary benefits under another social security number and filing for Medicare Part A or Part B under one s own social security number before being entitled to auxiliary benefits under another social security number 5 How do I identify which respondents were paid benefits for the most recent month or any specific month For a benefit to be paid in any given month the respondent must be in current pay status as indicated by the LAF code To identify respondents who w
37. r the MBA is not necessarily equal to the amount beneficiaries would pay income taxes on or see in their monthly checks For the former users should look to the MBC Under law the MBC is calculated by first subtracting the Part B Medicare Premium if any from the MBA then rounding the result down to the nearest whole dollar and adding the Part B premium to the rounded amount The MBP is the MBC minus the Part B premium and reflects the dollar amount of the check or direct deposit that the respondent was credited for receiving In addition from January 1962 through May 1982 the monthly MBA and MBC variables were the same The PIA MBA MBC and MBP fields are updated for every benefit rate increase for beneficiaries in current or suspended pay status see the TOB codes Records for terminated beneficiaries show the PIA increase but their benefit variables are not updated The benefit fields should always be used with the TOB code for the month With the passage of the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act a portion of Social Security benefits has been subject to federal income taxes Starting with 1984 it is possible to determine the actual amount of the check or direct deposit that the respondent received In order to provide beneficiaries with an IRS Forms 1099 for income tax reporting the aggregate amount of Social Security benefit payments repayments and reductions with respect to an individual in a calendar year was collected in the
38. r Termination Death X X X X X ERC Earnings Recomputation Cycle X X X RACE Race of Beneficiary X X X X X RCC Recomputation Code X X X SEX Sex of Beneficiary X X X X X TOC Type of Claim X X TOCNUM Claim type count X TOC01 TOC20 Type of Claim 1 20 X 02 Current Beneficiary Claim Data Primary BCLMAF60 Adjusted Retirement Factor Months age 50 60 X X X BCLMAF62 Adjusted Retirement Factor Months age 60 62 X X X BCLMAFRA Adjusted Retirement Factor Months age 62 FRA X X X BCLMAPPR Date Beneficiary Filed for Benefits X X X BCLMBIC Beneficiary Identification Code X X X BCLMCEC Historical Current Entitlement Code X X X BCLMCERT Historical Current Entitlement Date X X X BCLMDOE Date of Entitlement for Benefits X X X BCLMDOET Historical Date of Entitlement Termination X X X BCLMDOF Date of Filing for Benefits X X X BCLMLMET Last Monthly Earnings Test Year X X X BCLMMOE Month Of Entitlement Code X X X BCLMORF Original Reduction Factor Months X X X BCLMOTSI Entitlement Outside the Max Indicator X X X 03 Latest Beneficiary Denial Disallowance Data Primary DENYAPPR Application Receipt Date X X X DENYBIC Beneficiary Identification Code X X X DENYCEC Historical Current Entitlement Code X X X DENYDDO Disability Onset Date X X X DENYDOF Application Filing Date X X X DENYLOD Level Of Denial X X X DENYRDD Reason For Disability Denial X X X August 2015 20 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Currently Insured Has QCS QCS Reauired For Fully Insured Test Statutory Blin
39. s it appear that the benefit record contains duplicate data elements As formatted for the HRS each benefit record has two parts The first part describes the benefit if any that the respondent applied for through the most recent permission date and historical data for that entitlement The second part describes the benefit if any that the respondent applied for through the most recent permission date and historical data for that entitlement as an auxiliary beneficiary based on another person s earnings The indication that there is a second part to the benefit record is a value of 1 in the variable OTBEN 2 What is dual entitlement and how do I find them Some workers especially currently formerly married women are entitled to both a worker primary benefit based on her own covered earnings record and a higher secondary benefit generally based on her former husband s earnings record For them the program pays the primary benefit in full but the secondary benefit is paid only in the amount by which it exceeds the primary benefit A value of other than spaces in the Type of Dual Entitlement TOD 1 code in the first part of the record identifies that dual entitlement existed at the time that the data was extracted Information regarding this dual entitlement period can be obtained from the variables OTBIC 1 OTDOE 1 OTPIA 1 LFMBA 1 OTRIA 1 LEMBA 1 SFMBA 1 SAMBA 1 DESC 1 and OTOC 1 Historical data for the other benefit is in the sec
40. sallowance or Denial BDC Basic for Denial Code A derivative of the denial codes in the RDD usually contains the last two positions of the RDD DIG Diagnosis Code SDIG Secondary Diagnosis Code August 2015 19 XyrdSpBenDD2012 Appendix B Data Availability by Source for Section A SOURCE Category Variable Content Group Name 1992 1993 1998 2004 2006 2008 00 Control Data HHID Household Identifier and Person Number X X X X X X PN Person Number X X X X X X OTBENCOD Other Benefit Indicator X X X X X X SOURCE Year permission given flag X X X X X X 01 Benefit Data Primary BDOB Date of Beneficiary Birth X X X BDOD Date of Beneficiary Death X X X X X CIS1 Computation and Insured Status Code One X X X DDCO Direct Deposit Code X X X X X DOB Primary Date of Birth X X X X X DOCA Effective date of Date of Suspension of Termination X X X X X DODP Primary Date of Death X X X X X DOEC B of Current Most Recent Entitlement to X X X X X enefits DOECBIC Beneficiary Identification Code at DOEC X X X X X DOECTOB Type of Benefit at DOEC X X X X X DOEI Earliest Date of Initial Entitlement to Benefits X X X X X DOEIBIC Beneficiary Identification code at DOEI X X X X X DOEITOB Type of Benefit at DOEI X X X X X DOST Date of Suspension o
41. uestions about the content and use of this data set refer to the HRS Restricted Data Web site or contact the HRS Help Desk hrsquestions umich edu by email 2b Access to Restricted Data Although most HRS data sets are available to the public without restriction certain HRS data sets contain sensitive respondent information and are only available under terms of a formal agreement negotiated between the researcher and HRS If you are a researcher who has found a restricted data file that is of interest you should begin the application process by reviewing the application materials and procedures on the HRS Web site http hrsonline isr umich edu If you decide to go forward you should submit a preliminary application package containing a research proposal and data protection plan to HRS If problems are found with your application the HRS staff members will contact you to provide assistance in resolving them Otherwise once you have been notified by HRS that your application is complete you may submit your application to your local Institutional Review Board and or Contracting Authority After IRB approval is obtained you should submit the signed originals of the institutional approval documents to the HRS At this point the application is complete and it is forwarded to the HRS Data Confidentiality Committee DCC for review and approval If approval is granted by the DCC the Principal Investigator of the HRS will sign the restricted data agreem
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