3220-0140

OMB NO. 3220-0140

Justification

Employee's Certification

RRB Form G-346

1. Circumstances of information collection - Section 2 of the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA) provides for the payment of an annuity to the spouse or divorced spouse of a retired railroad employee. For the spouse or divorced spouse to qualify for the annuity, the Railroad Retirement board (RRB) must determine if the employee's current marriage to the applicant is valid.

The requirements for obtaining documentary evidence to determine valid marital relationships are prescribed in 20 CFR 219.30 through 219.35.

Section 2(e) of the RRA requires that an employee must relinquish all rights to any railroad employer service before a spouse annuity can be paid.

2. Purposes of collecting/consequences of not collecting the information - Form G-346, Employee’s Certification, is used by the RRB to obtain the information needed to determine whether the employee's current marriage is valid. Form G-346 is completed by the retired employee who is the husband or wife of the applicant­ for a spouse annuity. The form is used to support the information furnished by the spouse in Section 3 of RRB Form AA-3, Application for Spouse/Divorced Spouse Annuity, or AA-3 cert (3220-0042), or Section C of RRB Form AA-7, Spouse/Divorced Spouse Application for Medicare (3220-0082). Form G-346 is not used in cases involving a divorced spouse who files for an annuity, since any marriage impediments would have been identified during the divorce court proceedings.

Form G-346 is designed to facilitate self-administration. Items 1,2 and 3 are pre-filled by the RRB. The form is either given to the retired employee for completion at the time the spouse files an application or is mailed if the retired employee is not present at the spouse application interview.

The RRB proposes no changes to Form G-346.

3. Planned use of improved information technology or technical/legal impediments to further burden reduction – With respect to an Internet equivalent option, the RRB has deferred action (given the relatively low amount of annual responses) due to limited funding and the need to develop higher priority projects.

4. Efforts to identify duplication - This information collection does not duplicate any other information collection.

5. Small business respondents - N.A.

6. Consequences of less frequent collection - N.A.

7. Special Circumstances - None

8. Public comments/consultations outside the agency - In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), comments were invited from the public regarding the information collection. The notice to the public was published on page 51535 of the September 3, 2008, Federal Register. No comments or requests for additional information were received from the public.

9. Payments or gifts to respondents - None

10. Confidentiality - Privacy Act System of Records, RRB-22, Railroad Retirement, Survivor and Pensioner Benefit System.

11. Sensitive questions - N.A.

12. Estimate of respondent burden - The current and proposed burden for the collection follows:

Current Burden

Form #	Annual Responses	Time (Min)	Burden (Hrs)
G-346	7,560	5	630

Estimated Burden

Form #	Annual Responses	Time (Min)	Burden (Hrs)
G-346	6,900	5	575

Responses Hours

Total burden change -660 -55

Adjustment -660 -55

13. Estimate of annual cost to respondents or record keepers - N.A.

14. Estimated cost to the Federal government - N.A.

15. Explanation for change in burden – The decrease in burden is based on actual usage of Form G-346 over a two-year period. We have classified the burden change as an adjustment.

16. Time schedule for data collections and publications - The results of this collection will not be published.

17. Request not to display OMB expiration date - The G-346 is seldom revised. Given the cost associated with redrafting, reprinting, and distributing the form in order to keep the appropriate OMB expiration date in place, the RRB requests the authority to not display the expiration date on the form.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement - None

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