Supporting Statement--0665

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR FORM SSA-711

REQUEST FOR DECEASED INDIVIDUAL’S

SOCIAL SECURITY RECORD

20 CFR 402.130

OMB No. 0960-0665

1. Justification

1. The Freedom of Information Act at 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(3) provides that members of the public can request records from Federal agencies. 20 CFR 402.130 of the Code of Federal Regulations describes how to request a record. The Social Security Administration (SSA) needs the name and address of the member of the public who is requesting the information as well as a description of the record that member is requesting in order to process the request.

2. SSA uses the information provided by the respondent on Form SSA-711 to verify that the wage earner is deceased and to access the correct Social Security record. Respondents are members of the public who are requesting deceased individuals’ Social Security records.

3. The information collected on the paper Form SSA-711 is also collected electronically on the Social Security Electronic Freedom of Information Act (eFOIA) website at https://secure.ssa.gov/apps7/eFOIA-FEWeb/internet/main.jsp

4. The nature of the information SSA is collecting and the manner in which we are collecting it preclude duplication. There is no other collection instrument used by SSA that collects data similar to that collected here.

5. The collection of information may involve small businesses or other small entities. However, the information requested is restricted only to what is necessary to identify the authorizing signature.

6. Data requests are not on a scheduled basis, and most of the requests are one-time in nature. Therefore, this information collection cannot be conducted less frequently. The consequence of not collecting the information is that SSA would be unable to respond to the public’s FOIA request. There are no technical or legal obstacles, which prevent burden reduction.

7. There are no special circumstances that would cause SSA to collect this information in a manner inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. SSA published the 60-day advance Federal Register Notice on April 7, 2009, at 74 FR 15808, and SSA has received no public comments. We published the second Notice on June 9, 2009, at 74 FR 27379. There have been no outside consultations with members of the public. Note: The first Federal Register Notice listed this Information Collection Request (ICR) as an extension; however, as we are revising the Privacy Act Statement; SSA is now listing this as a revision.

9. SSA provides no payment or gifts to the respondents.

10. The information requested is protected and held confidential in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1306, 20 CFR 401 and 402, 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act of 1974) and OMB Circular No. A-130.

11. The information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Approximately 50,000 respondents will use Form SSA-711 annually. Of this total, 49,800 of the respondents will respond through eFOIA. The estimated average response time is 7 minutes, for a total of 5,833 burden hours. The total burden reflects burden hours and we did not calculate a separate cost burden.

Collection Method	Number of Respondents	Estimated Completion Time	Burden Hours
eFOIA	49,800	7 minutes	5,810
SSA-711 paper form	200	7 minutes	23
Totals	50,000		5,833

13. SSA charges the public varying amounts ($29, $27, $18 or $16 for processing the information per SSA-711, as indicated on the instruction sheet for the form) depending on how much information they provide and how they request to receive the information.

14. The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $77,000. This estimate is a projection of the costs for printing and distributing the collection instrument and for collecting the information.

15. There has been no significant change in the number of respondents or the public reporting burden.

16. SSA will not publish the results of the information collection.

17. OMB exempted SSA from publishing the expiration date for OMB approval on its forms. SSA produces millions of public-use forms, many of which have a life cycle longer than that of an OMB clearance. SSA does not periodically revise and reprint its public-use forms, (e.g., on an annual basis). OMB granted this exemption so that SSA would not have to stop using otherwise useable editions of forms with outdated expiration dates. In addition, we avoid government waste because we do not have to destroy and reprint stocks of forms.

18. SSA is not requesting an exception to the certification requirements at 5 CFR 1320.9 and related provisions at 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

2. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

SSA did not use statistical methods for this information collection.