Ri 25-049_ss

OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT

RI 25-49 – Verification of Full-Time School Attendance

1. Justification

1. Title 5, U. S. Code, Chapter 83, Section 8341, and Chapter 84, Section 8441, provide for survivor benefits for children of deceased Federal employees and annuitants, including adult students’ age 18 to 22 who are unmarried and are full-time students in recognized schools. No more than a five-month break between school terms is permitted without loss of benefits for the period the child was not in school. RI 25-49, Verification of Full-Time School Attendance, which must be completed by the school, is used to verify that the student is or was attending school full-time.

2. RI 25-49 is an optical mark recognition (optical scan) form; it requires the payee to obtain school certification of the student’s enrollment. This form will be mailed to the payee during the spring term. When responses are received, the data will be used to determine whether the student should continue to receive annuity benefits, as well as whether the student has already received annuity to which he is not entitled. The Public Burden Statement meets the requirement of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

3. Improved information technology will do little to reduce the burden. The information collected cannot be obtained from other sources. However, this form is available in a PDF fillable format on our website and meets our GPEA requirements.

4. The forms are filed individually. Similar information is not available.

5. Information is not collected from small businesses.

6. The collection of this information is performed as needed to determine the student status of the annuitant.

7. This information collection is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6, except for 1320.6(b). An immediate response is needed to prevent payments to survivor annuitants who are no longer eligible.

8. A 60-day notice of the proposed information collection was published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2008, 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 made to the respondents.

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10. This information collection is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 and OPM regulations (5 CFR 831.106). The routine uses of disclosure appear in the Federal Register for OPM/Central-1 (73 FR 15013, et seq., March 20, 2008, effective April 21, 2008).

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. Approximately 10,000 forms will be processed annually. The form requires approximately 60 minutes for completion. Burden of 10,000 hours is estimated.

13. There is no cost to the respondents.

14. The annualized cost to the Federal government is $23,750. This cost includes employee salary hours devoted to the program, forms and overhead.

15. There is no change in the respondent burden.

16. The results of this 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.