0502 supporting statement (revised)

Supporting Statement for Beneficiary Recontact Report

Form SSA-1588-SM

OMB No. 0960-0502

1. Justification

1. Introduction/Authoring Laws and Regulations

Section 202(g)(1) of the Social Security Act (the Act) states that a surviving spouse of an individual who died and was fully or currently insured is entitled to mother's or father's benefits, as long as this spouse did not re-marry and an entitled child of the deceased is in their care.

20 CFR 404.703 and 20 CFR 404.705 of the Code of Federal Regulations authorizes the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) to request information SSA needs to decide whether entitlement to benefits continues. SSA may stop benefits if we do not receive the requested information for establishing continuing entitlement.

2. Description of Collection

SSA investigates recipients of disability payments to determine their continuing eligibility for payments. Research indicates recipients may fail to report circumstances that affect their eligibility. Two such cases are: (1) When parents receiving disability benefits for their child marry and (2) the removal of an entitled child from parents’ care. SSA uses Form SSA-1588-OCR-SM to ask mothers or fathers about their marital status and children currently in their care to detect overpayments and to avoid continuing payment to those no longer entitled. Respondents are recipients of mothers’ or fathers’ Social Security benefits.

Form SSA-1588-OCR-SM is a pre-filled form; SSA completes certain fields electronically before we send to the recipient. SSA sends Form SSA-1588-SM to widowers, once a year for the first three years after entitlement, then six years after entitlement, and then nine years after entitlements. SSA employees then evaluate the information listed on the form for program compliance.

3. Use of Information Technology to Collect the Information

SSA did not create an electronic version of form SSA-1588-SM under the agency’s Government Paperwork Elimination Act, because this is an agency-initiated form on which SSA has to pre-fill information before releasing these forms.

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.

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

If we do not use Form SSA-1588-SM to determine if recipients are still eligible to receive payments, SSA could issue incorrect payments to recipient.

There are no technical or legal obstacles to burden reduction.

7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances that would cause SSA to conduct this information collection in a manner inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Solicitation of Public Comment and Other Consultations with the Public The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice published on April 2, 2013, at 78 FR 19794, and we received no public comments. The 30-day FRN published on June 3, 2013 at 78 FR 33142. If we receive any comments in response to this Notice, we will forward them to OMB.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents

SSA does not provide payments 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

Modality of Collection	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Average Burden Per Response (minutes)	Estimated Total Annual Burden (hours)
SSA-1588-OCR-SM	171,506	1	5	14,292

The total burden for this ICR is 14,292 hours. This figure represents burden hours, and we did not calculate a separate cost burden.

13. Annual Cost to the Respondents (Other)

This collection does not impose a known cost burden on the respondents.

14. Annual Cost To Federal Government

The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $274,337. 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 is an increase burden hours. This change stems from an increase in the number of widow(er)s on our records.

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 requirement 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. Exceptions 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).

2. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

SSA does not use statistical methods for this information collection.

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