Supporting Statement--SSA-1713

Supporting Statement for Form SSA-1713

Statement of Reclamation Action

OMB No. 0960-NEW

1. Justification

1. 31 CFR 210 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which is the Federal Government Participation in the Automated Clearing House, covers the ability to send payments to Canada, as well as the reclamation of funds which were erroneously paid to a Canadian financial institution after the death of the Social Security beneficiary.

2. Form SSA-1713 collects information regarding whether, how, and when the bank was able to return the erroneous payment made after death, so that the Social Security Administration (SSA) can keep track of the erroneous payment. In this way, SSA can attempt to reclaim the funds which were erroneously paid. Form SSA-1713 is always sent with a Form SSA-1712 cover sheet which is entirely filled out by SSA and contains the information regarding the beneficiary who authorized payment to a Canadian financial institution. The respondents are bank officials at Canadian financial institutions to which Social Security payments have been made.

3. Due to the low volume of respondents and the infrequency of use, Form SSA-1713 is not scheduled for electronic implementation under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act.

4. The nature of the information being collected and the manner in which it is collected preclude duplication. There is no other collection instrument used by SSA that collects data similar to that collected here.

5. This collection does not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small businesses or other small entities.

6. If the information on the SSA-1713 were not collected, then SSA would not be able to track erroneous payments to financial institutions in Canada. Also, since this information is only collected on an as-needed basis, it cannot be collected less frequently. There are no legal or technical obstacles that prevent burden reduction.

7. There are no special circumstances that would cause this information collection to be conducted in a manner that is not consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice was published on May 26, 2006 at 71 FR 30464, and SSA has received no public comments. The second Notice was published on July 31, 2006, at 71 FR 43270, and SSA has received no public comments. There have been no outside consultations with members of the public.

9. SSA provides no payments or gifts to the respondents.

10. The information requested is protected and held confidential in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1306, 20 CFR 401 and 402, 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act of 1974) and OMB Circular No. A-130.

11. The information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. We estimate that 15 respondents per year will spend 5 minutes each, which gives a total of 1 hour. The total burden is reflected as burden hours, and no separate cost burden has been calculated.

13. There is no known cost burden to the respondents.

14. The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $23. This estimate is a projection of the costs for printing and distributing the collection instrument and for collecting the information.

15. This is a new collection that will increase the public reporting burden.

16. The results of the information collection will not be published.

17. OMB has granted SSA an exemption from the requirement that the expiration date for OMB approval be printed on its program forms. SSA produces millions of public-use forms, many of which have a life cycle longer than that of an OMB approval. SSA does not periodically revise and reprint its public-use forms (e.g., on an annual basis). This exemption was granted so that otherwise useable editions of forms would not be taken out of circulation because the expiration date had been reached. In addition, Government waste has been avoided because stocks of forms will not have to be destroyed and reprinted.

18. SSA is not requesting an exception to the certification requirements at 5 CFR 1320.9 and related provisions at 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Statistical methods are not used for this information collection.