Data on public assistance income sources have been collected for the Older and Young Men during select survey years. In general, data are available on income received from public assistance/welfare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), food stamps, or Supplemental Security Income. Users should be aware that there is considerable variation across years in the types of public assistance income sources for which data were collected. In addition, (1) universes (all family members, any family member, respondent and spouse, respondent only, spouse only), (2) reporting periods (past calendar year, previous 12 months, most recent month), and (3) the wording of questions differs substantially both within and across cohorts.

Data on housing assistance were collected for select survey years of the Older Men. The following series of poverty status and income-poverty level ratio variables are available for the Older Men cohort only:

1. Poverty status variables created for the 1966, 1967, and 1969 surveys indicate whether the income of a respondent's family unit was above or below a set of Census-developed poverty income guidelines based on number of children, farm-nonfarm residence, and marital status of the respondent.
2. A ratio of the respondent's family income in the previous year to the poverty level was created for the 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and 1975 surveys.

Tables 1 and 2 show more information about the assistance variables available for the two cohorts.