Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP)

Detailed information for 2001

Status:

Inactive

Frequency:

Occasional

Record number:

3898

The Self-Sufficiency Project was designed to determine the effectiveness of an earnings supplement to single-parents in receipt of Income Assistance who found full-time jobs and agreed to leave the Income Assistance Program.

Data release - October 7, 2003 (These data are from the fourth and final follow-up survey of welfare applicants in British Columbia.)

Description

The Self-Sufficiency Project is a research demonstration project managed by the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) and conducted jointly with Statistics Canada. It is funded by Human Resources Development Canada. The Self-Sufficiency Project was designed to determine the effectiveness of an earnings supplement to single-parents in receipt of Income Assistance who found full-time jobs and agreed to leave the Income Assistance Program.

An earnings supplement was offered for a limited three-year period to each eligible individual, as part of a random assignment experiment. The project, conducted in New Brunswick and British Columbia, was designed to evaluate the effect of the earnings supplement on the employment rates, earnings, family income, income assistance receipt and other outcomes.

Several reports on the findings from this project are available from the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (www.srdc.org).

Subjects

  • Employment insurance, social assistance and other transfers
  • Labour

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population for the Self-Sufficiency Project (Applicants) consisted of single parents with at least one dependant under the age of 19 who were beginning a new spell of income assistance in 1994-1995 in southern British Columbia.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a longitudinal design.

The sample frame for the Self-Sufficiency Project (Applicants) was created using monthly provincial administrative income assistance files. The frame was stratified by income assistance district of the applicants and was sorted by family size of each unit within each stratum.

A systematic sample was randomly selected each month from the sampling frame that contained the monthly target population.

A total of 4,140 income assistance applicants were selected between February and December 1994. Of this number, 3,314 signed the project participation Informed Consent required to join the demonstration project. These 3,314 single parents are the sample for the subsequent follow-up surveys conducted by Statistics Canada.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2000-04-30 to 2001-05-21

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The 72-month Follow-up survey of applicants was conducted by the Regional Operations Division in Vancouver through computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). The questionnaire was administered with an Interviewer software programmed application. Proxy interviews are not generally allowed.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

Questionnaire flows were validated and missing data identified. A thorough review of interviewers' comments was conducted and appropriate edits performed.

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

No public use microdata file will be produced by Statistics Canada and data will not be made available through the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI).

Data accuracy

The response rate for the 72-Month Follow-up Survey was 72%.

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