Through its Ticket to Work Program Manager, SSA uses the information collected to operate and manage the Ticket to Work Program. SSA uses the Ticket to Work Program to assign Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries to a service provider, and follows their progress through the various stages of ticket program participation such as progress reviews or changes in ticket status. Most of the collections in this request require service providers to provide information to SSA for such tasks as selecting a payment system or requesting payments for helping the beneficiary achieve certain work goals. Most of the categories of information collected in this request are required for SSA to be in compliance with the Ticket to Work legislation and provide proper oversight of the program. The respondents are SSDI beneficiaries and blind or disabled SSI beneficiaries and their employment networks or State vocational rehabilitation agencies under the Ticket to Work Program.
ENs are anticipating the administrative efficiencies this Portal represents and may have adjusted their own resources expecting it to be available by May 1, 2012. In addition, to implement the contract reduction, we have already let some contracting staff go with the expectation that we will pilot and fully implement before we make the final contract reductions. We are requesting emergency OMB approval of the Portal to meet EN expectations and to allow sufficient time to use and ensure that the new processes work as expected before making final 2012 contract reductions.
If the Portal is not available for use until late summer, it will result in reduced FY 2012 productively since it will continue to take ENs longer to submit requests and it will take us longer to process them. The inability to process ticket assignments timely would delay services to the beneficiaries. The inability to process payment requests would delay payments to ENÂs and State VRÂs for the services they provided beneficiaries. In addition, if the Portal is not available for use until shortly before the remaining contract reductions are made, and there are problems with transitioning to it, there will not be manpower to process ticket assignments, payment requests, and other incoming documents, or to fulfill the requests for reports. This would bottleneck or possibly suspend some daily operations.
To ensure the Portal is available for EN use by May 1, 2012, we are asking for OMB approval of this Emergency Clearance by April 16, 2012.
We decreased the burden estimates for the paper SSA-1365 as we no longer require the use of this form for all cases. We decreased the annual reporting burden for the Request to reenter Ticket-Use Status (section c) based on more accurate data over the past year. Previously, we used a high estimate based on an educated guess, with the current data, we feel more confident in our new numbers. We reduced the response time for Selecting a Payment System (section d) as current data shows a more accurate time estimate. In addition, we increased the response time for the SSA-1389 to account for the new Part 2 we added (see Addendum for more detail). We also decreased the response time for Periodic Outcomes Reporting (section g) as we now accept this reporting electronically and we request less information since we capture some information as a by-product of operational activity.
Finally, we are adding the new Secure Provider Portal which will decrease the time burden for some of the collections listed above (see Addendum for more details). We estimate approximately half of all respondents will use the Portal rather than the paper forms.
All other increases and decreases to our burden estimates are based on current actual response data. We base our estimates on the average two-year actual responses (from the previous two years) for each instrument divided by two.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
a) 20 CFR 411.140(d)(3); 411.150(b)(3); 411.325(a) - SSA-1370