A PhD student would like to get microdata that would show, in addition to demographic and socio-economic characteristics, individual income received from all forms of disability insurances (either private insurance, employer insurance or government programs). I could not locate a dataset, at least not a PUMF. The Canadian Income Survey has a variable that shows federal and Quebec pension plans revenues including disability benefits, but it is one aggregate figure, there is not a separate amount for disability-related income. In any case that would not show private or employer disability insurance benefits.
Am I missing a data source? If not, would there be a Masterfile at the RDC (maybe the Longitudinal Administrative Databank) that would have that type of information?
Answer from Subject Matter:
“The LAD does not have any information on private or employer disability insurance benefits.
We simply report the total earnings on employees’ T4, some of which may be related to disability.
The LAD does have three disability-related income variables:
- CPP/QPP disability benefits included in income (DSBCQ)
- Registered disability savings plan (RDSP_)
- Workers’ compensation payments (WKCPY)
There is no tax microdata available in RDCs, since T1FF is not available in RDCs it is not possible to use it for this project. ”
Follow-up Question:
Would it be possible to get a get a complete description of the 3 variables listed ? I do not believe that there is a data dictionary publicly available for the LAD. I want to make sure that the variables actually provide an income figure and that it is specific to disability. For instance, I want to confirm that the DSBCQ variable only lists the disability-related part of the CPP/QPP benefits. And as for the RDSP, are we talking about income or contributions to the plan?
Answer from DLI List:
Take a look at the following link for the LAD, 2015 variable definitions (data dictionary).
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-585-x/2017000/def/def_a-eng.htm
You can find the LAD three disability-related income variables:
- CPP/QPP disability benefits included in income (DSBCQ) - under C, almost at the bottom of the page
- Registered disability savings plan (RDSP_) - under R
- Workers’ compensation payments (WKCPY) - W, at the top of the page
Answer from Subject Matter:
“Here is a link to the LAD documentation in pdf format in order to obtain a description of CPP/QPP disability benefits included in income (DSBCQ), Registered disability savings plan (RDSP), and Workers’ compensation payments (WKCPY): https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/12-585-x/12-585-x2017000-eng.pdf?st=ZSSjNqKF
The above variables actually provide an income figure and specifically to disability; we confirm that the DSBCQ variable only lists the disability-related part of the CPP/QPP benefits; and that RDSP refers to income or contributions to the plan (see documentation).
Also:
The DSBCQ variable is taken from line 152 of the T1 and only shows the disability-related part of the CPP/QPP benefits.
The RDSP variable is taken from line 125 of the T1 and refers to income from an RDSP.”
Follow-up Questions:
I had a look at the user guide for the Longitudinal and International Study of Adults (LISA) user guide. It looks like this survey would be more suited to my PhD students as it has richer demographic, labour and educational information as well as module on disability.
According to the user guide, the income information comes from the T1FF and T4 files, but there is no detailed description of the income (or other) variables) and the data dictionary does not seem to be readily available.
I would like to know if some income variables include disability-related figures, either similar variables than those available in the LAD or other ones, as long as they are specific to disability benefits. Also, it would be great if the data dictionary was available.
Follow-up Answer:
“As per our LISA Section:
LISA would be a great data source for the client’s student’s needs. In addition to the module on self-reported disability, LISA links to administrative data, including the T1FF. As a result, we would have respondent-level data on disability-related benefits (including DSBCQ, RDSP, and WKCPY that were mentioned in the email below). Unfortunately, we do not have information on private or employer disability insurance benefits.
The client should note that LISA is a longitudinal study, and therefore, the data are most useful if users are looking to perform longitudinal analyses. The weighted output represents the original LISA population of 2012 (Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the 10 provinces).
The client should also be aware that the latest LISA data (Wave 3; 2016) is set to be released before the end of the calendar year. Currently Wave 1 (2012) and Wave 2 (2014) are available to data users.
Finally, the nofreq codebooks (data dictionaries) that the client may find useful are attached. One is for the main LISA survey (Wave 2; 2014), and the other is our T1FF codebook, which outlines the variables that are provided through data linkage.”
