Ri 38-128 Ss

OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT

RI 38-128 – It’s Time to Sign Up for Direct Deposit or Direct Express

A. Justification

1. Public Law 104-134 requires that regular annuity payments must be paid by Direct Deposit through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), unless receiving the payment electronically would cause the annuitant hardship. RI 38-128 is designed to collect the information the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) needs to administer this provision of Public Law 104-134.

2. RI 38-128 provides the opportunity for the annuitant to elect Direct Deposit or a paper check. This election is required only once: when a person is first put on our rolls. If there is no evidence that the separating agency gave the person this election, OPM must provide RI 38-128. The form has been revised to bring it up-to-date. The Public Burden Statement meets the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

3. Improved information technology cannot reduce the burden because the information cannot be collected from anyone other than the annuitants. However, this form is available in a PDF fillable format on our website and meets our GPEA requirements.

4. These forms are filed individually. Duplication is minimized. Similar information signed by the respondent is not available from other sources.

5. Information is not collected from small businesses.

6. Less frequent collection would prevent OPM from complying with the law.

7. This information collection is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. Notice of the information collection was published in the Federal Register on November 2, 2012, giving persons outside the agency an opportunity to comment on the form. No comments were received.

9. There is no payment or gift to respondents in connection with this collection.

10. This information collection is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 and OPM regulations (5 CFR 831.106). The routine uses for disclosure appear in the Federal Register for OPM/Central-1 (73 FR 15013, et seq., March 20, 2008).

11. The information collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

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12. We estimate there are 20,000 responses to RI 38-128 each year. Each form takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. The annual burden is 10,000 hours and is not expected to change.

13. There is no cost to the respondents.

14. The annual cost to the Federal government is $106,000. This cost includes employee salary hours devoted to the program, forms cost, and overhead.

15. There are no changes to the respondent burden.

16. The results of this information collection are not published.

17. It is not cost-effective to reprint the whole supply of forms to change the OMB clearance expiration date. Therefore, we seek approval not to display the date on the form.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement.