This report describes the results of cognitive interview research on questions about welfare reform benefits which were contained in both the 1998 and 1999 March Income Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). These questions were the first attempt by the CPS to measure participation in welfare reform benefits after 1996 legislation instituted the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, which requires each state in the nation to implement their own welfare program and quickly transition welfare recipients to the work force. The cognitive interview research described in this report was the second (and final) phase of a project designed to evaluate the questions about participation in welfare reform benefits and to develop improvements for the March 2000 CPS. Prior to the cognitive interviews, the first phase of research was a series of focus groups conducted with welfare case managers and welfare program participants used to identify problems that existed with the questions, and to gather information to aid in the development of questionnaire design solutions. The results of the focus groups are documented in a separate report (by Loomis & Rothgeb, dated April 13, 1999); those results guided the development of revised questions on receipt of welfare reform benefits, which were then tested in the cognitive interviews.

This report begins with a description of the methods and procedures that were used to conduct the cognitive interviews. The cognitive interview results and our recommendations for March 2000 are presented according to the major topic area s of the welfare-reform related questions: receipt of cash assistance, cash diversion assistance, transportation and child care assistance, and participation in work-related training activities. After each recommendation, the final decisions that were made by the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Di vision (HHES) are presented.