2900-0132 justification

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR VA FORM 26-4555,

APPLICATION IN ACQUIRING SPECIALLY ADAPTED HOUSING OR SPECIAL HOME ADAPTATION GRANT

(2900-0132)

A. Justification

1. VA grants for Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) and Special Housing Adaptations (SHA) for disabled Veterans or Servicemembers are authorized under Title 38, U.S.C., chapter 21.

2. VA Form 26-4555 is used to gather the necessary information to determine the eligibility for the SAH or SHA grant. The Veteran or Servicemember will complete VA Form 26-4555 and submit it to the nearest VA Regional Loan Center. VA will control the application, establish a file on the incoming forms, and forward them to the Veterans Service Center (VSC). VSC will process the forms and return them along with a rating decision to Loan Guaranty. Then Loan Guaranty will update the file and send the appropriate form letter to the Veteran or Servicemember notifying him or her of basic eligibility for the SAH or SHA benefit. The initial interview with the Veteran or Servicemember will be held within 30 working days for purposes of providing grant and related information.

3. Veterans and Servicemembers have the option to submit VA Form 26-4555 electronically through the eBenefits website at https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ or the Veterans Information Portal (VIP) at https://vip.vba.va.gov/portal/VBAH/Home. In the near future, VIP will be discontinued, and eBenefits will be the sole method to submit VA Form 26-4555 electronically. VA Form 26-4555 is also available through the One VA forms website at http://www.va.gov/vaforms in a fillable electronic format.

4. No duplication of information is involved. The form solicits personal information about the loan and would not be available in another agency’s records.

5. Small business organizations are not involved.

6. Frequency is generally one-time per applicant.

7. There are no special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. The department notice was published in the Federal Register on October 12, 2011, pages 63354-63355. No comments were received.

9. No payments or gifts to respondents have been made under this collection of information.

10. Loan Guaranty Home, Condominium and Manufactured Home Loan Applicant Records, Specially Adapted Housing Applicant Records, and Vendee Loan Applicant Records – VA (55VA26) contained in the Privacy Act Issuances, 2001 Compilation.

11. No questions of a sensitive nature are contained on the form.

12. Estimate of Information Collection Burden

a. The number of respondents is estimated at 4,158 per year. Online respondents account for 7% of this total.

b. Frequency of response is generally on occassion.

c. Annual burden is 693 hours.

d. The estimated response time is 10 minutes.

e. The total estimated cost to respondents is $10,395 (693 hours x $15 per hour).

13. This submission does not involve any recordkeeping costs.

14. Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

$ 18,877.32 Total estimated cost to the Government (Loan Guaranty processing cost for FY 2011 (4,158 cases x 10 minutes per case x $27.24 per hour average Loan Guaranty field salary))

15. The increase in burden hours is due to the rise in the number of respondents for SAH or SHA grants from 3,000 to 4,158 annually.

16. Information collection is not for publication purposes.

17. The collection instrument, VA Form 26-4555, may be reproduced and/or stocked by the respondents and veteran service organizations. This VA form does not display an expiration date, and if required to do so would result in unnecessary waste of existing stocks of this form. These forms are submitted to OMB for approval every 3 years. As such, this date requirement would also result in an unnecessary burden on the respondents and would delay Department action on the benefit being sought. VA also seeks to minimize its cost to itself of collecting, processing, and using the information by not displaying the expiration date. For the reasons stated, VA continues to seek an exemption that waives the displaying of the expiration date on VA Form 26-4555.

18. This submission does not contain any exceptions to the certification statement.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

3.