SUPPORTING STATEMENT (New)

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR VA FORM 22-5281

Application for Refund of Educational Contributions

(OMB Control Number 2900-0261)

A. Justification.

1. Public Law 94-502 established the Post-Vietnam Era Educational Assistance Program (VEAP). The VEAP program account is jointly funded by the eligible participant and the Department of Defense. The fund provides educational assistance payments to eligible participants who entered the service after December 31, 1976, and before July 1, 1985, and are pursuing training under Chapter 32, title 38 U.S.C.

VA Form 22-5281, Application for Refund of Educational Contributions, is required to process a refund of contributions made by program participants who wish to disenroll from the program. If a participant stops enrollment from the program prior to discharge or release from active duty, such participant’s contributions will be refunded on the date of the participant’s discharge or release from active duty or within 60 days of receipt of notice by the Secretary of the participants’ discharge. If a participant stops enrollment from the program after discharge or release from active duty, the participant’s contributions shall be refunded within 60 days of receipt of an application for a refund from participant.

2. VA uses the current information collection to properly identify and refund the amount currently being held in the Post-Vietnam Era Veterans Education account to the qualifying Veteran.

3. VA Form 22-5281 is available in an electronic fillable format on the Internet. The form cannot be submitted electronically at this time, as a signature is required.

4. Program reviews were conducted to identify potential areas of duplication; however, none were found to exist. There is no known Department or agency which maintains the necessary information, nor is it available from other sources within our Department.

5. There is no impact on education institutions or small businesses.

6. Without the information submitted on VA Form 22-5281, we would be unable to refund to the participant the amount which is currently being held in the Post-Vietnam Era Veterans Education account.

7. The collection of this information does not require any special circumstances.

8. The Department notice was published in the Federal Register on June 18, 2013, Volume 78, Number 117, page 36643.  No comments were received in response to this notice.

9. VA does not provide any payment or gifts to respondents.

10. VA Form 22-5281 is retained permanently in the claimant's education folder. Our assurance of confidentiality is covered by 38 U.S.C. 5701 and our System of Records, Compensation, Pension, Education and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Records - VA (58VA21/22/28), which are contained in the Privacy Act Issuances, 2011 Compilation.

11. None of the information collected is considered to be of a sensitive nature.

12. We anticipate that 511 individuals will complete VA Form 22-5281 annually. The number of responses is based on the number of forms completed in previous years. We estimate that no more than ten minutes will be required to complete VA Form 22-5281. The estimated annual burden for the collection is 85 hours.

The annual gross cost to the public is $1,275 based on 511 responses. By assigning a value of $15 per hour to the time it will take the claimant to complete the VA Form 22-5281 and an average completion time of 10 minutes.

13. This submission does not involve any record keeping costs.

14. The annual cost to the government for administering these requests is estimated at $1,097 based on 511 annual responses.

This cost is based on the salary of a claims examiner (GS-9 step 5 with an hourly salary of $25.77) and a processing time of 5 minutes per response.

15. The public burden in hours has decreased because of the diminishing need of VEAP disenrollment refunds since there have been no new enrollees to VEAP.

16. VA does not publish this information or make it available for publication.

17. The collection instrument, VA Form 22-5281 may be reproduced and/or stocked by respondents and veterans organizations. Requiring VA to display an expiration date on the form would result in unnecessary waste of existing stocks. Inclusion of the expiration date could also result in a delay of the Department's action on the benefit being sought (respondent trying to obtain a newer version, while VA would have accepted the older version). For the reasons stated, VA continues to seek an exemption that waives the displaying of the expiration date.

18. This information collection fully complies with all the requirements of 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.8(b)(3).

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

This collection of information by the Veterans Benefits Administration does not employ statistical methods.

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