EMBARGOED UNTIL: 10 A.M. EDT, APRIL 29, 1997 (TUESDAY) Public Information Office CB97-73 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Patricia Johnson 301-763-8575 Census Bureau Launches 10-Year Study to Follow Effects of Welfare Reform Legislation The Commerce Department's Census Bureau this week begins the first phase of its new Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD) designed to help policy-makers evaluate the impact of the welfare reform legislation that took effect on August 22, 1996. "This survey will provide invaluable insight into the long-term effects of these reforms on the U.S. welfare system, as well as the social, economic and demographic impacts these changes will have on families, adults and children," said Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley. "The results will be used by individuals, legislators, policy-makers and analysts for years to come." The survey will include data collected prior to the beginning of welfare reform and data collected after the reform legislation went into effect. During the next several months, the Census Bureau will contact and interview about 35,000 households who participated in the 1992 and 1993 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). SPD data collection will continue in the spring of 1998 with a sample of about 20,000 households who either previously received, currently receive, or may become eligible to receive state assistance, along with a random sample of other households. Data collected in the SPD for 1996-2001, along with information already collected from 1992 through 1995 for SIPP, will provide 10 years of data to use in assessing the short-to-medium-term outcomes of the welfare legislation. The SPD will measure program eligibility, access and participation in the full range of welfare programs. It will measure the income, services and benefits received from programs in addition to employment, earned income and income from other sources. Users of the data will be able to track welfare dependency, the beginning and end of periods of welfare, factors that may be causes of such periods and the impact the changes will have on families, adults and children over time.-X-The Census Bureau--pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. In over 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the first census in 1790, the Census Bureau provides official information about America's people, businesses, industries, and institutions.
