Justification for the Non-Substantive Changes - 0789 (IT Mod Change Request for November 2021)

Justification for the Non-Substantive Changes for

Social Security Administration’s Public Credentialing and Authentication Process

20 CFR 401.45 & 20 CFR 402

OMB No. 0960-0789

Background

Since its establishment in May of 2012, SSA uses the Social Security Administration’s Public Credentialing and Authentication Process (hereafter-called “eAccess”) to provide a secure, centralized gateway to Social Security’s public-facing electronic services. We currently allow users to register both through our eAccess Internet process, and through a personal interview process using the Registration and Customer Support (RCS) screens for in-person or telephone interviews.

Starting December 2021, we are making additional changes to enhance our system and ensure continued security for our customers. These are minor language changes to the screens to enable easier navigation through the sign in and registration processes for the customers.

We are also making additional changes to continuously provide our customers with more options to handle business and personal affairs online.

As always, we continue to update authentication requirements for my Social Security customers to ensure continued security and to enhance the system.

We expect to implement these new, non-substantive IT Mod changes as soon as possible at the beginning of December. Therefore, we are asking for OMB’s approval of these revisions as soon as possible, to ensure we can implement on time.

Revisions to the Collection Instrument

• Change #1: We are making minor language changes to screens.

Justification #1: These changes will provide easier navigation through the screens for the sign in and registration processes, as well as better usability for our customers.

• Change #2: We have included new error messages and screens for the SSA technicians.

Justification #2: This change will make the account creation process clearer for SSA technicians – for customers that have accounts with SSA and an external partner.

SSA will implement these revisions upon OMB approval. These actions do not affect the public reporting burden. OMB approved the current burden estimate on 09/28/2021, and we do not anticipate any changes to the burden due to these minor revisions to the screens.

Future Plans

Due to the agile nature of our projects, we expect to move more applications to our my Social Security landing page, which users access through the electronic access authentication. At this time, we are still finalizing our IT modernization plans for these changes. We expect to submit another change request within six to nine months to request approval for additional updates to the system, and potentially, update the burden again to include more users if we are able to move more applications to our my Social Security landing page.