Supporting Statement 0073

3

Supporting Statement for Form SSA-1425

Reporting Changes That Affect Your Social Security Payment

20 CFR 404, Subparts D & E

OMB No. 0960-0073

A. Justification

1. Introduction/Authoring Laws and Regulations - Sections 202(b)(1), (c)(1), (d)(1), (e)(1), (f)(1), (g)(1), (h)(1), (t)(1); 203(b)(1), (c), (h)(1)(A); and 205(a) of the Social Security Act (the Act) provide that once the Social Security Administration (SSA) determines a person is entitled to Social Security benefits, the law requires the person to notify SSA of any change in circumstances which could affect continued entitlement and receipt of benefits. Entitlement includes retirement, disability, wife’s, husband’s, child’s, widow’s, widower’s, mother’s, father’s, or parent’s benefits. Sections 20 CFR 404.301-305, 404.310-.311, 404.330-.333, 404.335-.341, 404.350 and 404.468 of the Code of Federal Regulations set forth the procedures and policies for implementing the Act.

Sections 202, 203, and 205 of the Act set out how earnings, death, divorce, annulment, marriage, no longer having a child in care, going outside the United States, etc., affect a person’s continuing entitlement to retirement and survivors benefits.

This information collection request is a renewal without changes to an existing collection.

2. Description of Collection – In order for SSA to make proper determinations as to benefit payment increases, decreases, suspensions or terminations of entitlement (depending on the event reported), it is essential that persons notify SSA of these events. Beneficiaries use Form SSA-1425 only in the event of a reportable change in the beneficiary’s circumstances. The beneficiary does not complete the entire form, only the portion of the form that warrants the reportable circumstance as mentioned in #1 above.

3. Use of Information Technology to Collect the Information - Improved information technology that would reduce the burden is not available. SSA has not scheduled Form SSA-1425 for electronic implementation due to the moderate volume of respondents. However, one of the reporting items on the SSA-1425 is to report a change of address.  Since that is a common event, change of address is now an option on the SSA website.  It is under the "What you can do online" menu. So, while we have not scheduled the entire form itself for electronic implementation, we are considering adding further reporting events for future on-line implementation.

4. Why We Cannot Use Duplicate Information -The nature of the information we are collecting and the manner in which we are collecting it preclude duplication. SSA does not use another collection instrument to obtain similar data. There is no other collection instrument used by SSA that collects data similar to that collected here.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Respondents –This collection does not affect small businesses or other small entities.

6. Consequence of Not Collecting Information or Collecting it Less Frequently – This collection takes place based on the need of the applicant. If we collected the information less frequently, it could result in incorrect payments to beneficiaries because of incomplete or inaccurate beneficiary records. If SSA did not collect the information, we would not know if a benefit payment was correct until after we learned of the beneficiary’s change in circumstances, possibly resulting in overpayments. There are no technical or legal obstacles which prevent burden reduction.

7. Special Circumstances - There are no special circumstances that would cause SSA to conduct this information collection in a manner that is not consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Solicitation of Public Comment and Other Consultations with the Public – SSA published the 60-day advance Federal Register Notice on October 26, 2009 at 74 FR 55080, and we received no public comments. We published the second Notice on December 28, 2009, at 74 FR 68655. There have been no outside consultations with members of the public.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents - SSA provides no payment or gifts to the respondents.

10. Assurances of Confidentiality- SSA protects and holds confidential the information it collects 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. Justification for Sensitive Questions - The information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of Public Reporting Burden - Approximately 70,000 respondents will use Form SSA-1425 annually. The estimated average response time is 5 minutes, for a total of 5,833 burden hours. The total burden reflects burden hours, and we did not calculate a separate cost burden. All respondents will be individuals/households.

13. Annual Cost to the Respondents - There is no known cost burden to the respondents.

14. Annual Cost to Federal Government - The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $107,800. This estimate is a projection of the costs for printing and distributing the collection instrument and for collecting the information.

15. Program Changes or Adjustments to the Information Collection Request - There are no changes in the public reporting burden.

16. Plans for Publication Information Collection Results - SSA will not publish the results of the information collection.

17. Displaying the OMB Approval Expiration Date - OMB granted SSA an exemption from the requirements to print the OMB expiration date on its program forms. SSA produces millions of public-use forms with life cycles exceeding those of an OMB approval. Since SSA does not periodically revise and reprint its public-use forms (e.g., on an annual basis), OMB granted this exemption so SSA would not have to destroy stocks of otherwise useable forms with expired OMB approval dates, avoiding Government waste.

18. Exception to Certification Statement - 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).

.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

SSA did not use statistical methods for this information collection.