Ri 92-22 Ss

OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT

RI 92-22 – Annuity Supplement Earnings Report

A. Justification

1. Title 5, U. S. Code, Chapter 84, Section 8421 and 5 CFR 842.504 provide for payment of an annuity supplement to non-disability retirees under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) who meet the eligibility requirements. The annuity supplement is provided to eligible FERS employees who retire before age 62, approximating the portion of a full career Social Security benefit earned while under FERS and ending at age 62 when Social Security benefits become available. Like Social Security benefits, the annuity supplement is subject to an earnings limitation as specified in 5 USC 8421a. An earnings test based on an earnings exempt amount established each year by the Social Security Administration (SSA) is required to determine the amount of and continued eligibility for the supplement. 5 CFR 842.505(c) states, “Earnings and estimated earnings for each test year will be furnished by retirees in a form prescribed by OPM.”

2. The information collected using RI 92-22 allows OPM to determine if the earnings from work performed while entitled to the annuity supplement have exceeded the earnings limitation established by SSA. Earnings that exceed the exempt amount reduce the annuity supplement by one dollar for every two dollars the exempt amount is exceeded. However, the reduction never exceeds the amount of the annuity supplement. The earnings test applies only to the annuity supplement and is not used to reduce the basic FERS annuity. Only those whose annuities exceed the earnings limitation are asked to respond. The form has been revised to bring the Privacy Act and Public Burden Statements up-to-date. If this information is not collected, we could not administer this provision of the law. The Public Burden Statement meets the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3). This form will be available in a PDF fillable format on our website and meets our GPEA requirements.

3. The information collected can only be obtained from the respondents. New methods of information technology would do little to reduce the burden on the respondents; they must sign certifying the truth of their statements, under penalty of law.

4. Each RI 92-22 is prepared for the individual respondent who is asked to certify earnings information for the specified year. Duplication is minimized and respondents who did not earn more than the exempt amount are asked not to respond.

5. Information is not collected from small businesses.

6. This information collection is required to determine the correct amount of annuity supplements. Less frequent collections would result in incorrect annuity supplement payments.

7. The collection is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

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8. A notice of proposed information collection was published in the Federal Register on November 24, 2006, as required by 5 CFR 1320, giving persons outside the agency an opportunity to comment on the form. No comments were received.

9. No payment or gift is provided to respondents.

10. This information collection is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 and OPM regulations

(5 CFR 831.106). The routine uses for disclosure appear in the Federal Register for OPM/Central-1 (64 FR 54930, et seq., October 8, 1999, as amended at 65 FR 25775, May 3, 2000).

11. This information collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

12. The number of respondents has increased from 700 to approximately 13,000 a year. The form requires about 15 minutes to complete for an annual burden of 3,250 hours. The annual burden was 175 hours; this is an increase of 3,075 hours a year. This burden is expected to increase in the future due to the increase in the number of persons retired under FERS.

13. There is no cost to the respondents.

14. The annualized cost to the Federal government is $40,500. This cost was determined by employee salary hours devoted to the program, forms cost, mailing costs, and overhead.

15. The respondent burden increased from 175 to 3,250 hours, an increase of 3,075 hours because the number of FERS annuitants is increasing.

16. The results of this information collection are not published.

17. It is not cost effective to reprint the whole supply of forms to change the OMB clearance expiration date. Therefore, we seek approval not to display the date on the form.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement.