Respondents who do not indicate eligibility for means-tested programs through a series of income and program screener questions are not asked questions about a series of small, means-tested annual programs, including food assistance (such as receiving food from food banks), transportation assistance (such as receiving free ride programs), job training (such as attending job readiness courses), or clothing or housing assistance. Beginning with 2018 SIPP, these respondents were assigned a value of "2" (no, did not receive assistance) and a status flag value of “3” (logical imputation) in this series. This change increased the size of the universe for these items and the logical-imputation rate for status flags associated with the variables.

Internal income and program screener variables used to set the universe for this content are not available on the public-use file. Data users cannot recreate the universe and should be aware of this change when analyzing Other Assistance data. Users can approximate the instrument universe and pre-SIPP 2018 data by excluding observations with a “3” (logical imputation) status flag value.

Variable name	Description
Food assistance
EFOOD_TYPE1	Received money, vouchers, or certificates to buy groceries or food other than Food Stamps
EFOOD_TYPE2	Received bags of groceries or packaged foods
EFOOD_TYPE3	Received any meals from a shelter, soup kitchen, Meals- on-Wheels, or other charity
EFOOD_OTH	Received some other kind of food assistance
EFOOD_MNYN	Received food assistance not SNAP this month
Transportation assistance
ETRANS_TYPE1	Received gas vouchers
ETRANS_TYPE2	Received bus or subway tokens or passes
ETRANS_TYPE3	Received help registering, repairing, or insuring a car
ETRANS_TYPE4	Received rides to a doctor's office or medical appointment
ETRANS_OTH	Received some other kind of transportation assistance
ETRANS_MNYN	Received transportation assistance this month
Job training assistance
EWELACTV1	Attended classes to improve basic reading or math skills
EWELACTV2_1	Attended job readiness training to learn about resume writing, job interviewing, or building self-esteem
EWELACTV2_2	Attended job search program or job clubs, or use any job resource centers to find out about jobs, to schedule interviews, or to fill out applications
EWELACTV2_3	Attended training to learn specific job skills, such as computers, car repair, nursing, day care work, or some other job skills
EWELAC_MNYN	Received training assistance this month
Clothing and housing assistance
ECLTH_TYPE	Received clothes, money or vouchers, or both, to buy clothing
ECLTH_SR1YN	Received clothing assistances from a government social service agency
ECLTH_SR2YN	Received clothing assistances from a community or religious charitable organization
ECLTH_SR3YN	Received clothing assistances from family or friends
ECLTH_SR4YN	Received clothing assistances from an employer
ECLTH_SR5YN	Received clothing assistances from someplace else
EHOUSE_ANY	Received assistance to help pay for housing
EOTHAS_MNYN	Received other clothing or housing assistance this month