Justification for Non-substantive Change to 0960-0763

Justification for Non-substantive Change

20 CFR 401.45

OMB No. 0960-0763

Terms of Clearance

This ICR is approved consistent with memo of 12-11-07. SSA shall submit a change request within 60 days of approval to merge this collection with 0960-0618 and then discontinue this OMB control number. This ICR is also approved on the understanding that field office personnel will be informed that claimants will now be able to obtain claims status information via telephone as long as they have a confirmation number. As such, SSA shall also instruct field office personnel to ask claimants whether they want to check the status of their claims using the phone, in addition to or in place of the Internet. A confirmation number shall be processed and provided to claimants who answer 'yes.'

SSA received approval for 0960-0763, National 800 Number—Claims Status, on 12/13/07. We did not submit a change request to merge this collection with 0960-0618 because the SSA policy office decided to remove the Claims/Application Status function from the 0960-0618 clearance package and clear it separately so that this function can be used for more than just the ISBA status queries. To this end, we are requesting a revision to 0960-0763 to change the title of the collection to “Application Status” and to add the Internet Application Status screens to the ICR.

In accordance with the above Terms, SSA informed field office (FO) personnel regarding the claimants’ ability to obtain status information via the telephone or the Internet. We also instructed FO personnel to ask claimants whether they want to check the status of their applications via telephone in addition to, or in place of the Internet. In either case, a confirmation number is processed and provided to the claimants who answer “yes.”

Justification for non-substantive Changes

Rationale for stand-alone application: Application Status is being removed from the Internet Social Security Benefit Application (ISBA), 0960-0618, because it can be used by all applicants whether they filed online or in a field office. Therefore, it should be accessible to all users regardless of where they filed their claims.

SSA is renaming this ICR “Application Status” in order to be inclusive of all applications regarding which claimants will be able to request status information (regardless of how the claim is filed: FO, Internet, or Telephone). Application Status will provide users with the capability to check the status of their pending Social Security claims either via the Internet or the National 800 Number Automated Telephone Service. Users will need their Social Security Number and a confirmation number to access this information. The Application Status will show users when their application was received, if additional documents were requested (e.g., Military Discharge papers, W-2s, birth records, etc.), and provide the address for the office that is processing their application. Once a decision has been made, a copy of their decision notice is made available for the user to view online with the exception of some claims that were not filed via the Internet for which notices may not be available for online review. Disability denial notices are excluded from this functionality; however, the application status for all claims will be available either via the Internet or the Automated Telephone Services.

Users will access this application either from the http://www.ssa.gov/onlineservices/

link or through the National 800 Number.

The Internet screens for Application Status will not contain a Welcome Page or instructional pages because of the simplicity of the application. According to the Office of Disclosure Policy, a Privacy statement is not needed. A new link for the Paperwork Reduction Act will be included on the first screen and a screen shot of the message is provided. Please see the attached screen shots.

To accommodate the increased burden information due to the addition of the Internet Application Status to 0960-0763, SSA has created the following burden chart which shows both the current burden for the Automated Telephone Services as well as the Internet version:

Type of Request	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Average Burden Per Response (minutes)	Total Annual Burden (hours)
Automated Telephone Services	704,422	1	1	11,740
Internet Services	863,548	1	1	14,392
Totals	1,567,970			26,132

SSA has created a new IC within the ICR for 0960-0763 to show the burden information listed in the chart above for the Application Status Internet services.

Upon approval of this change request, SSA plans to implement the new Application Status Internet screens by September 2008. At that time, claimants will be able to check the status of their applications either via Internet or the Automated Telephone Services.