The National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2008, Public Law 110-181, was enacted on January
28, 2008. Section 1105 of P.L. 110-181 amended the Federal
Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) creating a new section, 5 U.S.C.
§ 8102a effective upon enactment. This section establishes a FECA
death gratuity benefit of up to $100,000 for eligible beneficiaries
of federal employees and Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality
(NAFI) employees who die from injuries incurred in connection with
service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation. 5 U.S.C.§
8102a also permits agencies to authorize retroactive payment of the
death gratuity for employees who died on or after October 7, 2001
in service with an Armed Force in the theater of operations of
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. 5 U.S.C. §
8102a also allows federal employees to vary the order of precedence
of beneficiaries or to name alternate beneficiaries 20 CFR 10.909,
and 10.911 provides that the CA-40, CA-41, and CA-42 are the forms
to be used to designate beneficiaries and initiate the payment
process for death gratuity benefits. Form CA-40 is an optional form
that requests the information necessary from the employee to
accomplish this variance and to name alternate beneficiaries only
if the employee wishes to do so. Form CA-41 provides the means for
those named beneficiaries and possible recipients to file claims
for those benefits and requests information from such claimants so
that OWCP may determine their eligibility for payment. Further, the
statute and regulations require agencies to notify OWCP immediately
upon the death of a covered employee. CA-42 provides the means to
accomplish this notification and requests information necessary to
administer any claim for benefits resulting from such a
death.
US Code:
5
USC 8102a Name of Law: Amendment to the FECA, Death
Gratuity
PL:
Pub.L. 110 - 181 1105 Name of Law: National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008
PL:
Pub.L. 112 - 81 1121 Name of Law: National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
US Code: 5 USC
8145 Name of Law: Federal Employees' Compensation Act
US Code: 5 USC
8149 Name of Law: Federal Employees' Compensation Act
The number of claims received
for death gratuity varies from year to year. Only 6 death gratuity
claims were received between 2013 and 2015. As these operations
have winded down since their inception, the number of claims have
decreased. Furthermore, as the CA-40 is an optional form, used only
when an employee wishes to vary the order or preference or
designate an alternate beneficiary for payment, not all employees
choose to fill out this form prior to deployment or may choose to
rely on a designation from an earlier deployment, so the number of
people filling out this form varies greatly year to year.
Therefore, the previous approved number of annual respondents 272,
is now 262, which represents a decrease in 10 respondents. The
previously approved number for burden hours was 70; the requested
number now is 67, which is a decrease of 3. Likewise, the costs
burden for maintenance and reporting costs (postage and envelope)
decreased from $5.00 to $3.00, which is a decrease of $2.00.
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.