RI25-007_OMB_Supporting_Stmt_2018_05_30

OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT

RI 25-7 Marital Status Certification Survey

1. Justification

1. Title 5 U.S. Code Sections 8341, 8442, and 8445 authorize a survivor annuity to eligible widows, widowers, and former spouses of former Federal employees. The survivor annuity is payable based on the death of an employee or annuitant, provided the survivor does not remarry before reaching age 55. RI 25-7 is used to survey survivor annuitants to verify that they have not remarried prior to age 55. This provision of the law does not apply if the survivor and the decedent were married for at least 30 years.

2. RI 25-7 is sent only to survivor annuitants who were not age 55 on the date the previous survey ended. When the responses are received, OPM takes appropriate action based on the responses to determine whether to continue the survivor annuity. If this information is not collected, OPM could continue payments to individuals who are no longer eligible. Response may be made by returning the form or by utilizing the OPM website. Respondents are now actively encouraged to utilize the OPM website. There are editorial edits to the instructions including an updated Privacy Act Statement. The Privacy Act Statement has been revised due to a general systematic review by our Chief Privacy Officer.

3. The information collected cannot be obtained from other sources. New methods of information technology would not reduce the burden on the respondents. However, this form will be available in a PDF fillable format on our website and meets our GPEA requirements.

4. Similar information certified by the respondents is not available. Only those survivors
who have remarried and have not notified OPM are asked to respond.

5.  Information is not collected from small businesses.

5. Less frequent collection would cause survivor annuitants who remarry and fail to inform OPM to receive additional months of payments to which they are not entitled.

This information collection is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6, with the exception of 1320.6(b). An immediate response is needed to prevent payments to survivor annuitants who are no longer eligible.

5. There are no special circumstances that would cause an information collection to be collected in the aforementioned manner

5. A 60 Day Federal Register Notice was published on December 11, 2017 at 82 FR 58226 requesting comment. No comments were received.

5. No payment or gift is provided to these respondents.

5. This information collection is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 and OPM regulations (5 CFR 831.106 and 841.108). The routine uses of disclosure appear in the Federal Register for OPM/Central-1 (73 FR 15013, et seq., March 20, 2008).

5. This 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.

12.

Form Name	Form Number	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Annual Burden (in hours)	Average Hourly Wage Rate	Total Annual Respondent Cost
Marital Status Certification Survey	RI 25-7	24,000	1	15 minutes	6,000	$0	$0

There is no cost to the respondents.

13. There is no change in the respondent burden.

14. The annualized cost to the Federal government is $86,000. This cost includes employee
salary hours devoted to the program, forms cost, and overhead.

15. N/A

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

17. The Retirement Services program office is the lone processor of the data collected on these ICRs from approximately 2.8 million customers. The substance of each information collection does not substantively change at each OMB renewal cycle, but according to changes in law and regulation. These forms are printed and published (internet, intranet and on-board systems) through various agencies for distribution to and implementation by Government customers. Pursuant to title 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(1), it would not be appropriate to display the OMB clearance expiration date where the form will not be revised for the foreseeable future (e.g., because it is used to collect applicant, annuitant, or beneficiary information required by long-standing statutory provisions), where use of the paper form is prevalent, and where, accordingly, it will be expensive and burdensome to restock the paper forms inventory with a new version. Last year, under current practice, Retirement Services printed approximately 2 million documents subject to OMB clearance at a cost of approximately $85,000. Our costs would rise substantially if additional revision cycles are added. Lastly, by adding the OMB clearance expiration date to the existing format, the end users of OPM’s ICRs may erroneously assume that the expiration date affects the validity of the information collection when it is the OMB clearance expiration date and not reflective of the substance. This may lead to additional submissions by customers, possible litigation and increasing pressures on our Operations workloads. Therefore, we seek approval to not display the OMB clearance expiration date on the forms and to communicate version changes to the public via the revision date.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement.