Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
AGENCY: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
TITLE: Locating and Paying Participants
STATUS: Request for modification and extension of a currently approved collection of
information (OMB control number 1212-0055; expires October 31, 2021)
CONTACT: Melissa Rifkin (202-229-6563)
1. Need for collection. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) is requesting approval with modifications to a collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The purpose of the information collection is to enable PBGC to pay participants and beneficiaries who may be entitled to pension benefits from plans that have terminated. It consists of information participants and beneficiaries are asked to provide in connection with an application for benefits. In addition, in some instances, PBGC requests individuals to provide identifying information so that it may determine whether the individuals may be entitled to benefits. All requested information is needed so that PBGC may determine benefit entitlements and make appropriate payments.
This information collection includes My Pension Benefit Account (MyPBA), an application on PBGC’s website, http://www.pbgc.gov, through which plan participants and beneficiaries may conduct electronic transactions with PBGC, including applying for pension benefits, designating a beneficiary, electing or changing federal income tax withholding from periodic payments, changing contact information, and applying for electronic direct deposit. The information collected on the following forms that are part of this information collection may be entered into MyPBA: Forms 700, 701, 707, 708, 710, and 719. The remaining forms in this information collection are available in paper only.
PBGC is proposing the addition of four new forms: Form 700RN, Form 700RSC, 703RBD and 703RBD-MP. The addition of these forms is intended to improve customer service.
Form 700RN and Form 700RSC will be used in rare situations when participants who are already receiving benefits are given the opportunity to choose to elect a retroactive annuity starting date with a decrease to the annuity benefit. Form 700RN will be used by participants when spousal consent is not required, and Form 700RSC will be used by participants when spousal consent is required. PBGC will use this information to change the annuity starting date and reimburse the net underpayment resulting from the retroactive annuity payment.
Forms 703RBD and 703RBD-MP will be used in rare situations by participants who have reached their required beginning date (RBD) and are eligible to elect a lump sum payment in lieu of an annuity. Form 703RBD will be used for trusteed plan participants. Form 703RBD-MP will be used for participants claiming benefits under the Missing Participants Program and requires notarization of the participant’s signature as a fraud prevention measure. PBGC is separating participants who have reached their RBD from other participants who elect a lump sum payment to ensure that appropriate information is communicated to participants who have reached their RBD.
PBGC is proposing to revise the following forms in this collection: 700 (Participant Application for Pension Benefits), 701 (Payee Information Form), 702 (General Information Form), 707 (Designation of Beneficiary for Benefits Owed at Death (Currently Receiving Pension Benefits)), 708 (Designation of Beneficiary (Not Currently Receiving Pension Benefits)), 710 (Application for Electronic Direct Deposit), 711 (Change of Beneficiary for Certain & Continuous (C&C) Benefits Only), 715 (Power of Attorney), and 717 (Benefit Inquiry Questionnaire). The major proposed revisions and justifications for each are listed below.
To Form 700, PBGC is proposing to remove the question that asks participants to designate beneficiaries for amounts owed at death and collect this information only on Form 707. This change is intended to reduce errors with customers completing Form 700. In addition, PBGC is proposed to make a corresponding update to the instructions to Form 707 for clarification.
To Form 701, PBGC is proposing to add a question asking for the gender of the participant’s spouse. PBGC uses this information for purposes of actuarial calculations required to operate the single-employer insurance program.
To Forms 701, 702, 707, and 708, PBGC is proposing to clarify the requested information about beneficiaries owed benefits upon the participant’s death.
To Forms 701 and 710, PBGC is proposing to eliminate a question and information about Electronic Transfer Accounts (ETA), as this Department of the Treasury sponsored program ended.
To Form 711, PBGC is proposing to add a question for notarized spousal consent to the change in a beneficiary for a certain and continuous annuity. This change is intended to comply with applicable requirements under the Internal Revenue Code.
To Form 715, PBGC is proposing to clarify the instructions to improve customer service.
To Form 717, PBGC is proposing to eliminate questions asking for gender, the branch or division where the employee worked, lump sum amount and date paid, whether the lump sum was rolled over to an IRA, and whether the employee is currently receiving retirement benefits. PBGC is proposing to add requests for the last dates of employment, information on the type of retirement plan, and information appearing on SSA Form L-99-C1. This addition will decrease the need for PBGC to follow up with customers for additional, required information and increase processing efficiency.
PBGC is making editorial and formatting changes as well, including changing the design and appearance of MyPBA. Finally, PBGC is eliminating Form 709, for the reason that it requests much of the same information as Form 717 and thus is obsolete. PBGC believes these revisions will provide greater clarity to customers and improve their experience with the electronic system.
The existing collection of information was approved under OMB control number 1212– 0055 (expires October 31, 2021). PBGC is requesting that OMB extend its approval (with modifications) for three years from its approval date. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
Use of information. PBGC uses the information for trusteed plans and its missing participants program to determine whether an individual is (or may be) entitled to a pension benefit from a terminated retirement plan, to determine the form and amount of the individual’s benefit, and to make appropriate payments.
Information technology. PBGC provides for filing most benefit applications and for requesting a benefit estimate electronically through MyPBA. Most purely transactional requests such as electronic direct deposit and changes to federal income tax withholding are handled through MyPBA or by contacting PBGC by phone. Individuals entitled to benefits also may contact PBGC electronically through MyPBA, or by fax or e-mail (in addition to contacting PBGC by phone).
Duplicate or similar information. A limited amount of the information required to be submitted to PBGC in response to this collection of information (e.g., date of birth, social security number) may already be in the possession of the government. However, there is no timely and reliable way to locate documents that may include the required information, particularly since the reporting person may have submitted to the government some, but not all, of the documents required. In most cases, it would take a respondent more time to assist in tracking down and verifying documents in agencies’ files than simply to submit the information to PBGC.
When earnings information is not otherwise available, PBGC uses certain earnings data maintained by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in determining benefit entitlements; before PBGC may request this information from SSA, the individual must authorize the release of the information from SSA to PBGC.
Reducing the burden on small entities. Not applicable.
Consequence of reduced collection. If this information were collected less frequently, or were not collected, PBGC would not be able to effectively: (1) identify participants and beneficiaries entitled to pension benefits, (2) determine benefits, (3) make appropriate payments, and (4) provide benefit estimates.
Consistency with guidelines. This collection of information is consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
Outside input. On March 9, 2021, PBGC published in the Federal Register (at 86 FR 13590) a notice informing the public of its intent to request an extension of this collection of information, as modified. No comments were received.
Payment to respondents. PBGC provides no payments or gifts to respondents (other than required benefit payments) in connection with this collection of information.
Confidentiality. Confidentiality of information is that afforded by the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act. PBGC's rules that provide and restrict access to its records are set forth in 29 CFR parts 4901 and 4902.
Personal questions. This collection of information does not call for submission of information of a sensitive nature.
Hour burden on the public. The burden estimates for this information collection are based on inquiries about filing burden directed to fewer than 10 individuals who submitted benefit applications or information forms. PBGC asked how much time each respondent spent to complete the application or form including the time to read instructions and to receive answers to any questions they might have had about the application or form from PBGC. The results were averaged.
PBGC estimates that it will receive 170,506 benefit application or information forms annually. Averaging the information, PBGC estimates that the annual hour burden of this collection of information is 58,376 hours. This calculation includes one hour for 41,411 benefit application forms, 30 minutes for 8848 Forms 701, 30 minutes for 250 Forms 700RN, 30 minutes for 250 Forms 700RSC, 30 minutes for 130 Forms 704, 30 minutes for 661 Forms 715, and 6 minutes for 118,956 other information forms.
13. Cost burden on the public. PBGC estimates that the annual cost burden of this collection of information is $58,682 which is the total average maximum cost of notary services for signatures (including spousal consents) on Forms 700, 703, 703MP, 703RBD-MP, 711, 713, 715, 720MP and 700RSC. However, in a certain percentage of cases, PBGC expects the cost to an individual for notary services to be $0 where such services are provided at no charge to a bank’s own customers.
14. Cost to the government. Because all the work of processing this information will be performed by existing staff as part of their regular duties, the annual cost to the government is estimated to be $0.
15. Explanation of burden changes. Changes in the estimated total average annual hour burden (from 108,440 to 58,376 hours) and cost burden (from $56,711 to $58,682) of this collection of information is attributable to updated hour and cost burden estimates including the number of respondents (from 175,397 to 170,506) and the changes to this collection.
16. Publication plans. PBGC does not intend to publish the results of this collection of information.
17. Display of expiration date. PBGC is not seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection.
18. Exceptions to certification statement. There are no exceptions.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | PC0015596 |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-08-21 |