A Note to Health and Retirement Study Participants
from HRS staff at the University of Michigan, and from
the Social Security Administration

We would like to assure participants that the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a legitimate survey that is funded and co-sponsored by Social Security Administration (SSA)and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health.

If you agree to the release of personal information from SSA records, your confidential record will be stripped of all information that might link it back to you. Only anonymous data are made available to researchers and policymakers.

Participation in the study or signature on the consent form is voluntary. Those who agree to be interviewed can still refuse to answer any question asked during the study or to sign the consent form authorizing the release of SSA information. 

Linda Drazga Maxfield, SSA’s Associate Commissioner, Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics, has issued a letter thanking HRS participants and explaining the importance of the HRS data to SSA and other researchers. Your interviewer can provide you with a copy of this letter if you have not already received it.

If you are still uncertain about participating in this study or releasing personal information from SSA records, please contact the SSA Special Liaison to the Health and Retirement Study, Nicole Pascua, via electronic mail. She can also be reached at (202) 358-6303.

Thank you.