The 2014 SIPP asks questions about two programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA): Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI or Social Security). Matching SIPP data to SSA administrative records revealed that nearly one-half of respondents who reported SSI receipt in the first wave of the 2014 SIPP panel did not have a corresponding administrative record indicating receipt of SSI payments. Moreover, the linked data indicated respondents reported Social Security benefits when answering questions that were actually about SSI. This “program confusion” between SSI and Social Security contributed to the high level of SSI misreports. Program confusion was also identified when respondents reported receiving Social Security but administrative records showed only SSI receipt. The Social Security misreports were a much smaller percentage of “yes” answers for the topic compared to the SSI misreports.

Comparing administrative records to reported data in the 2014 SIPP allows for the statistical correction of a large portion of this program confusion. For example, for people who said “yes I received SSI” in the SIPP but administrative records, imputed or linked, show they received Social Security, their "yes" response for SSI was moved to the Social Security section of the survey. Responses were only changed when a respondent reported or was imputed "yes" in the survey and administrative records indicated program confusion.