Justification for Non-Substantive Changes for 0960-0555 (Addition of Text and Email Communications Capability)

Justification for Non-Substantive Changes for Disability Case Development Information Collections by State Disability Determination Services On Behalf Of The Social Security Administration

20 CFR, Subpart P, 404.1503a, 404.1512, 404.1513, 404.1514, 404.1517, 404.1519; 20 CFR Subpart Q, 404.1613, 404.1614, 404.1624; 20 CFR, Subpart I, 416.903a, 416.912, 416.913, 416.914, 416.917, 416.919; and 20 CFR Subpart J, 416.1013, 416.1024

OMB No. 0960-0555

Background

The State Disability Determination Services (DDSs) collect information the Social Security Administration (SSA) needs to administer our disability program. This information includes medical evidence generated from consultative examinations (CE), which DDSs use to make disability determinations when the claimant’s own medical sources cannot or will not provide the required information. Consistent with our efforts to expand our communication with claimants beyond standard print and telephone methods, we have established a process by which we can send text and email reminders to claimants regarding scheduled CE appointments. That process requires us to obtain claimants’ agreement for us to text or email them for this purpose. To that end, we created a script and agreement language to request claimants’ email and mobile telephone information, as well as to document claimants’ willingness to receive CE appointment reminders in texts and emails.

Revisions to the Collection Instrument

• Change #1: We created a telephone script and updated language to obtain email and mobile telephone information along with the agreement from a claimant, legal guardian, or parent of a minor child to receive reminders by text or email.

• Justification #1: We will limit the use of text and email to CE appointment reminders. Use of these reminders will expand the claimant's communication options with the DDS.

Updated Burden Information

We expect it will take approximately 4 minutes for an individual to read and understand the letter, complete the requested information, and return the completed document. We expect an equal burden for staff to read the script over the phone and document the conversation. Consequently, the burden for this minor collection is as follows:

Modality of Completion	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Average Burden per Response (minutes)	Estimated Total Annual Burden (hours)	Average Theoretical Hourly Cost Amount (dollars)*	Total Annual Opportunity Cost (dollars)**
CE Claimant Text/Email Reminder – Script/Agreement Form	1,175,536	1	4	78,369	$13.30*	$1,042,307.70**

* We based this figure on average DI payments, as reported in SSA’s disability insurance payment data (https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/2023factsheet.pdf).

** This figure does not represent actual costs that SSA is imposing on recipients of Social Security payments to complete this application; rather, these are theoretical opportunity costs for the additional time respondents will spend to complete the application. There is no actual charge to respondents to complete the application however there may be associated message and data rates depending on the claimant’s service provider.

The total burden for this minor, additional information collection request is 78,369 hours.

SSA will implement this revision upon OMB’s approval.