Abstract
Approximately 350,000 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients—elderly and disabled individuals with low incomes and assets—lived in the areas directly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August 2005. We show that recipients from affected areas were more likely to leave the program, have more volatile participation patterns, and leave the area in the 2 years following the hurricanes than were recipients from unaffected areas. Among recipients from more severely affected areas relative to those from unaffected states, the odds of dying were 40% greater and the odds of leaving SSI for other reasons were 23% greater. Additionally, 31% of recipients from more severely affected areas had experienced a non-payment month, with 46% subsequently returning to the rolls (compared with 23% and 41% of recipients from unaffected states). Nearly 60% of SSI recipients from more severely affected areas lived in a different county or parish 2 years after the hurricanes, compared with about 12% from unaffected areas. In all, our findings demonstrate that natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita can have large and persistent impacts on SSI recipients, including effects on program status, mortality, and geographic location.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/gulf_coast/tables/tab1_katrinaK0500US01v.htm. Although Katrina also affected Florida, it made contact as a lower category storm and is not usually included among the counties designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as disaster areas.
Social Security refers to the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.
Social Security Handbook, http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.21/handbook-2102.html.
Much of the research on the effects of Katrina has focused on New Orleans, e.g., Turner and Zedlewski (2006), but the problems there occurred in other locations as well, to varying degrees.
We use the terms “receiving SSI in August 2005” and “SSI recipients in August 2005” to refer to program participants or individuals who were in SSI current payment status in August 2005. It is possible that some SSI services were disrupted before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck. For example, if an individual was expecting to receive her SSI cheque in the mail, but was evacuated before the cheque arrived, she may not have physically received her cheque in August 2005. This is an important potential source of disruption caused by the hurricanes. Because we identify affected individuals as those who were in current payment status in August 2005, we correctly include these potential pre-hurricane effects in our analysis.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Hurricane Katrina Evacuees, September 2006.” http://www.bls.gov/katrina/200609status.htm, Accessed Aug. 31, 2007.
They may have originally evacuated, but were back in their home county or parish in August 2007.
For the time to death analysis, the only censoring month is the final month. For the time to first exit and length of non-payment spell analyses, the censoring month could be either the month of death or the final month.
This definition is applicable only in the discrete-time sense. Hazard is actually a rate over a given period of time. With discrete-time, however, the interval of time is of length 1.
The data for all figures, including survival rates, failure rates, standard errors, and hazard rates, are available upon request.
SSI eligibility is determined 2 months in advance, so it is not surprising that the first large change in eligibility would be 2 months after Katrina hit.
We speculate that the December spikes may be related to annual cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits or other end-of-year income adjustments.
Note that the sample is limited to those whose first reason for non-payment was not death; those who die are treated as censored as of the month of death (thus leaving the sample in the subsequent months).
The full results of the sensitivity analysis are available upon request.
References
Abramson, D., Stehling-Ariza, T., Garfield, R., & Redlener, I. (2008). Prevalence and predictors of mental health distress post-Katrina: Findings from the Gulf Coast Child and Family Health Study. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2(2), 77–86.
Belasen, A. P., & Polachek, S. W. (2009). How disasters affect local labor markets: The effects of hurricanes in Florida. Journal of Human Resources, 44(1), 251–276.
Cahoon, L. S., Herz, D. E., Ning, R. C., Polivka, A. E., Reed, M. E., Robison, E. L., et al. (2006). The current population survey response to hurricane Katrina. Monthly Labor Review, 129(8), 40–51.
Clayton, R. L., & Spletzer, J. R. (2006). Worker mobility before and after Hurricane Katrina. Monthly Labor Review, 129(8), 11–21.
Davies, P. S., Huynh, M., Newcomb, C., O’Leary, P., Rupp, K., & Sears, J. (2002). Modeling SSI financial eligibility and simulating the effect of policy options. Social Security Bulletin, 64(2), 16–45.
Dolfman, M. L., Wasser, S. F., & Bergman, B. (2007). The effects of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans economy. Monthly Labor Review, 130(6), 3–18.
Fields, L., Huang, A., Solomon, G., Rotkin-Ellman, M., & Simms, P. (2007). Katrina’s wake: Arsenic-laced schools and playgrounds put New Orleans children at risk. New York, NY: Natural Resources Defense Council. August 2007.
Garber, M., Unger, L., White, J., & Wohlford, L. (2006). Hurricane Katrina’s effects on industry employment and wages. Monthly Labor Review, 129(8), 22–39.
Gibson, M. J., & Hayunga, M. (2006). We can do better: Lessons learned for protecting older persons in disasters. Washington, DC: American Association for Retired Persons.
Government Accountability Office. (2007). Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Federal actions could enhance preparedness of certain state-administered federal support programs. GAO-07–219. Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office.
Government Accountability Office. (2008). National disaster response: FEMA should take action to improve capacity and coordination between government and voluntary sectors. GAO-08–369. Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office.
Groen, J. A., & Polivka, A. E. (2008). The effect of Hurricane Katrina on the labor market outcomes of evacuees. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 98(2), 43–48.
Landry, C., Bin, O., Hindsley, P., Whitehead, J. C., & Wilson, K. (2007). Going home: Evacuation-migration decisions of Hurricane Katrina survivors. Southern Economic Journal, 74(2), 326–343.
Liu, A., Fellowes, M., & Mabanta, M. (2006). Special edition of the Katrina index: A one-year review of key indicators of recovery in post-storm New Orleans. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
McIntosh, M. F. (2007). Measuring the labor market impacts of Hurricane Katrina migration: Evidence from Houston, TX. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 98(2), 54–57.
McKinnish, T. (2007). Welfare-induced migration at state borders: New evidence from micro-data. Journal of Public Economics, 91(3–4), 437–450.
National Council on Disability. (2006). The impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on people with disabilities: A look back and remaining challenges. Washington, DC: National Council on Disability.
Shehab, N., Anastario, M. P., & Lawry, L. (2008). Access to care among displaced Mississippi residents in FEMA travel trailer parks two years after Katrina. Health Affairs, 27(5), w416–w429. Available via http://content.healthaffairs.org/index.dtl. Published online August 29, 2008.
Singer, J. D., & Willet, J. B. (2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Turner, M. A., & Zedlewski, S. R. (Eds.). (2006). After Katrina: Rebuilding opportunity and equity into the new New Orleans. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2006). Current housing unit damage estimates: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Office of Policy Development and Research. February 12, 2006.
Vigdor, J. L. (2007). The Katrina effect: Was there a bright side to the evacuation of greater New Orleans? Advances in Economic Analysis and Policy, 7(1), 1773.
Wang, P. S., Gruber, M. J., Powers, R. E., Schoenbaum, M., Speier, A. H., Wells, K. B., et al. (2007). Mental health service use among Hurricane Katrina survivors in the eight months after the disaster. Psychiatric Services, 58(11), 1403–1411.
Zissimopoulos, J., & Karoly, L. A. (2007). Employment and self-employment in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. RAND Working Paper Series WR-525. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
Acknowledgments
A previous version of this paper was presented at the Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 17–19, 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana. The findings and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Social Security Administration or any agency of the Federal government. The authors are grateful to Linda Smith for outstanding data support and to the editors, an anonymous reviewer, Mike Compson, Susan Grad, John Hennessey, and Joyce Nicholas for helpful comments on an earlier draft. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The findings and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Social Security Administration or any agency of the Federal government.
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davies, P.S., Hemmeter, J. Supplemental Security Income recipients affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: an analysis of two years of administrative data. Popul Environ 31, 87–120 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-009-0093-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-009-0093-1