Representative Payee Focus Groups Guide Description

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE
OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Representative Payee Support Services Focus
Group Discussions
SSA SUB-NUMBER: B-02
BACKGROUND:
In certain cases, the Social Security Administration (SSA) determines that it is not in beneficiaries’
best interests to receive their benefits payments directly. In such cases, SSA can designate a
family member, other person, or organization to act as the representative payee for beneficiaries.
As a representative payee, the person or organization receives the SSA beneficiary’s payments
directly and manages these payments on the beneficiary’s behalf.
SSA provides guidance for potential and current representative payees on its website
(http://www.socialsecurity.gov/payee) and in written publications. Current representative payees
can also link to the required accounting process through this website.
SSA wishes to obtain input from current representative payees about:
 Their experiences acting as representative payees;
 SSA’s current representative payee support services;
 SSA’s representative payee website and the information available on this site;
 Representative payees’ satisfaction with support services and the website;
 Recommendations on how the agency can improve its representative payee support services
and the website.
DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY:
To research the above customer service issues, SSA would like to elicit input from individual and
organizational payees through guided discussions. Specifically, we will be conducting the
Representative Payee Services Satisfaction Focus Groups.
We will conduct a total of four sessions, each lasting approximately two hours. SSA will use a
contractor to recruit 10 participants for each session. The contractor will recruit participants
from lists of potential representative payees provided by SSA.
For specifics on the questions we will ask, see the attached Focus Group Discussion Guide.

Rep Payee Support Services Focus Groups (0960-0526 – Generic Clearance)
June 2009
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IF FOCUS GROUP MEMBERS WILL RECEIVE A PAYMENT, INDICATE AMOUNT:
We will pay participants $75 each.
USE OF FOCUS GROUP RESULTS:
SSA will use the results of these focus groups to assess satisfaction with the agency’s
Representative Payee support services and the Representative Payee web site. Ultimately, these
results will enable SSA to determine if the representative payee web site provides sufficient
information and is optimally presented and organized. Also, the findings will help SSA to
improve its support services to Representative Payees.
BURDEN HOUR COMPUTATION (Number of responses (X) estimated response time
(/60) = annual burden hours):
Number of Respondents: 40
Estimated Response Time: 120 minutes
Annual Burden Hours: 80 hours
NAME OF CONTACT PERSON: Faye I. Lipsky
PHONE NUMBER: 410-965-8783

Rep Payee Support Services Focus Groups (0960-0526 – Generic Clearance)
June 2009
2