Ri 25-7 Ss

OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT

RI 25-7 – Marital Status Certification Survey

1. Justification

1. Sections 8341, 8442, and 8445 of title 5, U. S. Code authorize a survivor annuity to eligible widows, widowers, and former spouses of former Federal employees. The survivor annuity is payable based on the death of an employee or annuitant, provided the survivor does not remarry before reaching age 55. RI 25-7 is used to survey survivor annuitants to verify that they have not remarried prior to age 55. This provision of the law does not apply if the survivor and the decedent were married for at least 30 years.

2. RI 25-7 is sent only to survivor annuitants who were not age 55 on the date the previous survey ended. When the responses are received, OPM takes appropriate action based on the responses to determine whether to continue the survivor annuity. If this information is not collected, OPM could continue payments to individuals who are no longer eligible. The form has been revised to require a response from each survivor. Formerly, responses were only required from survivors who had remarried. Response may be made by returning the form or by utilizing the OPM website. Respondents are now actively encouraged to utilize the OPM website. The Public Burden Statement meets the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

3. The information collected cannot be obtained from other sources. New methods of information technology would not reduce the burden on the respondents. However, this form will be available in a PDF fillable format on our website and meets our GPEA requirements.

4. Similar information certified by the respondents is not available. Only those survivors who have remarried and have not notified OPM are asked to respond.

5. Information is not collected from small businesses.

6. Less frequent collection would cause survivor annuitants who remarry and fail to inform OPM to receive additional months of payments to which they are not entitled.

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

8. A notice of the proposed information collection was published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2009, giving persons outside the agency an opportunity to comment on the form. No comments were received.

9. No payment or gift is provided to these respondents.

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10. This information collection is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 and OPM regulations (5 CFR 831.106 and 841.108). The routine uses of disclosure appear in the Federal Register for OPM/Central-1 (73 FR 15013, et seq., March 20, 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. OPM expects to survey approximately 24,000 survivors. An estimated 15,000 will respond via the website. The form requires approximately 15 minutes to complete using either response method. Burden of 6,000 hours is estimated. This represents an increase in burden of 5,375 hours due to the requirement that all survivors surveyed must respond.

13. There is no cost to the respondents.

14. The annualized cost to the Federal government is $77,950. This cost includes employee salary hours devoted to the program, forms cost, and overhead.

15. The respondent burden increased by 5,375 hours because in 2009 OPM requires a response from each person surveyed. In the past the only respondents were those who had married and had not yet informed OPM. In order to be certain to obtain an accurate result from the 2009 marital status survey, OPM is requiring each person surveyed to respond. OPM management goal is to change to a web-based survey. We need to be able to compare the results of the 2009 survey with surveys performed in earlier years to look for consistency. After this base line is determined and the change to a web-based survey is made, a decision can be made as to whether to revert to requiring a response only from those who have married and have not yet informed OPM.

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.