Do statistics on the relative importance of income sources accurately reflect the resources available to the elderly?
Not in all instances. First, the survey on which these data are based does not include some potentially important resources as income, including lump-sum pension payments and capital gains. In addition, these statistics do not take into consideration noncash benefits that supplement money income (housing and energy subsidies or food stamps) or the amount of savings available to supplement monthly income. This could overstate the relative importance of earnings or Social Security and understate the relative importance of pensions and assets as resources. Second, comparisons of the survey data used in this publication, the Current Population Survey (CPS), with other surveys indicate that certain sources of income are increasingly underreported, particularly asset income and pension income. One survey designed to capture small and/or infrequent amounts of income is the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Researchers at the Census Bureau and SSA have used these surveys to es
