Listing of Proposed GC Collections

LISTING OF PROPOSED GENERIC CLEARANCE COLLECTIONS

Below is a comprehensive list and description of all planned generic clearance activities for June 2009 through June 2012. Although we tried to project every possible activity, a situation may arise which will require us to conduct an unanticipated generic clearance. In that case, we will submit a change sheet to adjust the burden for this OMB number. As in the past, before conducting any generic clearance activity, we will submit documentation discussing the activity and a copy of the proposed collection instrument to OMB.

A. FOCUS GROUP TESTING

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
A-01	Medicare-Related Products, Services and Benefits SSA plans to conduct focus groups with members of the public to assess their opinions on SSA’s Medicare-related products and services, including those especially related to Part D, low-income subsidy. We will conduct six focus groups with 10 participants each for each GC plan year, with a participation time of 90 minutes.	90	90	90
A-02	e-Services Public Insight Process The e-Services Public Insight Process (PIP) is an agency-wide process whose goal is to ensure the integration of public opinion in the design, development, and implementation of new and enhanced e-Gov projects. We have designed the PIP focus groups to ensure that proposed e-Gov projects have meaningful, up-to-date knowledge about current and potential online users and how we can best meet their service needs. These focus groups will ask questions from the target user public to obtain their insights about, experiences with, and needs for SSA electronic products and services. For FY 2009-2011, 120 participants per year will take 90 minutes each to complete the focus group.	180	180	180

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR FOCUS GROUPS:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
270 hours	270 hours	270 hours

B. FOCUS GROUPS/USABILITY TESTING

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
B-01	Authentication Enhancements SSA will conduct focus groups/usability testing with our vast customer base (e.g. Social Security Card holders) on proposed authentication enhancements that will allow increased access to our online service products. To ensure we are safeguarding our customers’ privacy and to maintain the integrity of our information systems, it is imperative for SSA to have effective online authentication. We will conduct 6 projects per year with 60 participants in each project, with a completion time of 90 minutes.	540	540	540
B-02	Online Enhancements to Existing Products and Services SSA will conduct focus group/usability testing of proposed modifications to and expansion of existing products and services (i.e., applications for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits) on www.SocialSecurity.gov. Our goal is to ensure these enhanced products and services meet the public's needs and expectations. We plan to conduct six projects per year with 60 participants per group at 90 minutes per activity.	540	540	540

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR FOCUS GROUPS/USABILITY TESTING:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
1,080 hours	1,080 hours	1,080 hours

C. MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
C-01	Office of Acquisitions and Grants Vendor Survey SSA’s Office of Acquisition and Grants (OAG) regularly assesses the effectiveness of its acquisition operations. An important aspect of this assessment is the quality and professionalism of OAG interactions with the business community. To meet the needs of the business community, we will use vendor feedback to assess how we can improve procurement operations and policies. SSA will survey vendors receiving fiscal year 2010 acquisition awards. We will conduct the survey in 2010 with 350 respondents and a completion time of 10 minutes.	0	58	0

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
0 hours	58 hours	0 hours

D. MAIL/INTERNET QUESTIONNAIRES

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
D-01	Report Card Surveys These are brief scannable surveys measuring satisfaction with a specific business process. This category includes annual surveys of customers who 1) have experienced various stages of SSA’s initial disability claims process and 2) have undergone the hearing process in connection with a disability claim. SSA will use the results to track satisfaction trends among these groups with sample sizes large enough to permit national and regional analysis. We will conduct six surveys (three for the initial level and three for the hearing level) at staggered intervals for each of the upcoming fiscal years. For each of the six surveys, SSA will send a questionnaire with an estimated response time of 5 minutes to 10,000 disability applicants (60,000 total responders). SSA will use a contractor to administer the surveys.	5,000	5,000	5,000
D-02	Service Satisfaction Survey SSA conducts these surveys under the aegis of the agency’s Service Delivery Feedback Program. This survey category includes the Office Visitor Survey (OVS), which is an annual mail questionnaire that obtains satisfaction ratings from people who have visited randomly selected SSA field and hearings offices. Results of the OVS are included in the calculation of the agency’s overall satisfaction performance index. This survey category may also include a brief annual satisfaction survey conducted with people who have used various transactional services on SSA’s website to conduct their business. SSA will also incorporate satisfaction with Internet services in the performance index. SSA will survey approximately 16,000 respondents each fiscal year, with a response time of 5 minutes. SSA will use a contractor to administer the surveys.	1,333	1,333	1,333
D-03	Special Study Survey SSA plans to conduct satisfaction surveys on topics of current interest focusing on targeted populations or particular features of SSA service. In addition to measuring satisfaction with various SSA services, these surveys may address the service needs and expectations of various client groups currently served by the agency as well as future client groups. We will form client groups based on factors such as their current or prospective connection with SSA, the type of business conducted by the group, the type of SSA program that affects the group, and demographic factors. Sample sizes will be large enough to permit analysis of pertinent subgroups. SSA will conduct the surveys by mail or the Internet depending on the population we are surveying. Examples of these types of surveys include surveys of prospective SSA clients, a survey of e-mail correspondents, a survey related to field offices’ reception area practices, etc. SSA will use the results to gain insight about the customer experience and for agency planning purposes. Each year we expect to sample no more than 20,000 individuals. We anticipate an average response time of 15 minutes; the actual burden may vary from 10 to 20 minutes depending on the particular survey. SSA will use a contractor to administer the surveys.	5,000	5,000	5,000

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR MAIL/INTERNET QUESTIONNAIRES:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
11,333	11,333	11,333

E. INTERNET QUESTIONNAIRES

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
E-01	Social Security Internet Services SSA will conduct three qualitative Internet surveys each GC plan year with members of the public to obtain customer feedback on modifications to 1) existing www.SocialSecurity.gov WebPages and 2) online products and services. We project 1,000 respondents will participate in each survey, with an estimated response time of 5 minutes each.	250	250	250
E-02	Authentication SSA will conduct surveys of customers (ex: Social Security cardholders) to obtain their opinions on ways we can enhance our current authentication protocols. Effective online authentication is imperative to ensure SSA is safeguarding our customer's privacy and maintaining the integrity of our information systems. We project we will receive responses from approximately 7,000 customers annually (5 surveys with 1,400 responses each) with a completion time of up to 10 minutes.	1,167	1,167	1,167

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR INTERNET ACTIVITIES:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
1,417	1,417	1,417

F. TELEPHONE QUESTIONNAIRES

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
F-01	e-Services Public Insight Process The eServices PIP is an agency-wide process whose goal is to ensure that SSA integrates public opinion into the design, development, and implementation of new and enhanced e-Gov projects. We designed the PIP telephone surveys to ensure that proposed e-Gov projects have meaningful and up-to-date knowledge about current and potential online. These brief telephone surveys will ask questions from the target user public to obtain their insights about, experiences with, and needs for SSA electronic products and services. We project that 1200 participants will take 10 minutes each to complete the survey.	200	200	200
F-02	Social Security Statement Evaluation SSA will survey members of the public who receive Social Security Statements. These surveys, which we conduct in compliance with GAO’s recent recommendation that we regularly evaluate the Social Security Statement, solicit opinions on specific aspects of the Statement. For GC Plan Years 1-3, we will conduct two follow-up surveys with an estimated 1,200 respondents and an estimated response time of 11 minutes.	440	440	440
F-03	Service Satisfaction Survey SSA will also conduct these surveys under the aegis of the agency’s Service Delivery Feedback Program. This survey category includes the 800 Number Caller Survey and the Field Office Caller Survey, both designed to obtain satisfaction ratings from people who have conducted business with SSA over the telephone. Results of these two surveys are included in the calculation of the agency’s performance measure for overall satisfaction of people who do business with SSA. The surveys utilize similar short phone questionnaires addressing key factors related to satisfaction with telephone service. We will survey approximately 8,000 respondents with an estimated response time of 15 minutes for each fiscal year.	2,000	2,000	2,000
F-04	Special Study Survey SSA plans to conduct telephone satisfaction surveys with target populations and special-interest issue groups. We will conduct these surveys by telephone. In addition to measuring satisfaction with various SSA services, these surveys may address the service needs and expectations of various client groups currently served by SSA and potential future client groups. Examples of these types of surveys include new features of SSA’s 800-number service, SSA’s online services, and satisfaction with the clarity of specific SSA notices for programs such as the Medicare Part D subsidy program. We will conduct two special study surveys each GC plan year with 8,000 respondents (4,000 per survey) and an estimated response time of no more than 15 minutes.	2,000	2,000	2,000

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR TELEPHONE QUESTIONNAIRES:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
4,640	4,640	4,640

G. TELEPHONE/INTERNET QUESTIONNAIRE

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
G-01	Awareness and User Preferences for Social Security Information, Products & Services SSA will conduct mail- and Internet-based surveys with members of the public and SSA beneficiaries to determine user awareness and preferences for Social Security information, products, and services. A contractor typically coordinates these surveys. In GC Plan Year 1, we plan to conduct two surveys with 800 respondents per survey and a response time of 10 minutes; in GC Plan Years 2-3, we plan on four surveys per year with 400 respondents per survey and a response time of 10 minutes.	267	267	267

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR TELEPHONE/INTERNET QUESTIONNAIRES:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
267	267	267

H. COMMENT CARDS

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
H-01	Field Office (FO) Customer Comment Card SSA will mail or FO management will give the card to FO callers or visitors to evaluate and improve the services by their customers. SSA will mail these cards to 875,000 respondents annually in GC Plan Years 1-3 with a response time of 5 minutes per respondent.	72,917	72,917	72,917
H-02	Teleservice Center (TSC) Customer Comment Card SSA will mail this comment card to selected callers to the TSC. The purpose of the cards is to evaluate and improve the services offered by SSA’s TSCs. In GC Plan Years 1-3, SSA will mail the card to 396,900 members of the public annually, with a completion time of 5 minutes.	33,075	33,075	33,075

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR COMMENT CARDS:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
105,992	105,992	105,992

I. OTHER

SSA CATEGORY SUB-NUMBER COMPONENT	TITLE & DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION	Year 1 (June 2009 through May 2010) Burden Hours	Year 2 (June 2010 through May 2011) Burden Hours	Year 3 (June 2011 through June 2010) Burden Hours
I-01	Other This includes any possible future clearance that SSA has not covered in the above categories.	1 hour (placeholder burden)	1 hour (placeholder burden)	1 hour (placeholder burden)

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS REQUESTED FOR OTHER:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
1	1	1

THREE-YEAR GRAND BURDEN TOTAL FOR ALL REQUESTED GENERIC CLEARANCE ACTIVITIES:

GC PLAN YEAR	TOTAL HOURS (FOR ALL FIVE CATEGORIES)
Year 1	125,000
Year 2	125,058
Year 3	125,000
3-YEAR TOTAL	375,058 hours

Generic Clearance List of Proposed Activities

June 2009 through June 2012

2/2/2021

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