Supporting_Statement_0073 (revised)

Supporting Statement for Form SSA-1425

Reporting Changes That Affect Your Social Security Payment

20 CFR 404, Subparts D & E

OMB No. 0960-0073

A. Justification

1. Introduction/Authoring Laws and Regulations

Sections 202(b)(1), (c)(1), (d)(1), (e)(1), (f)(1), (g)(1), (h)(1), (t)(1); 203(b)(1), (c), (h)(1)(A); and 205(a) of the Social Security Act (the Act) provide that once the Social Security Administration (SSA) determines a person is entitled to Social Security benefits, the law requires the person to notify SSA of any change in circumstances which could affect continued entitlement and receipt of benefits. Entitlement includes retirement, disability, wife’s, husband’s, child’s, widow’s, widower’s, mother’s, father’s, or parent’s benefits. Sections 20 CFR 404.301-305, 404.310-.311, 404.330-.333, 404.335-.341, 404.350 and 404.468 of the Code of Federal Regulations set forth the procedures and policies for implementing the Act.

Sections 202, 203, and 205 of the Act set discuss how earnings, death, divorce, annulment, marriage, no longer having a child in care, going outside the United States, etc., affect a person’s continuing entitlement to retirement and survivors benefits.

2. Description of Collection

When Social Security benefit recipients experience a change that could affect their payments, they must report these changes to SSA. Title II beneficiaries in this category use Form SSA-1425 to report the relevant information to SSA; the agency then determines if the respondents continue to be entitled to benefits, and if so, the proper amount of these benefits. The respondents are Social Security beneficiaries receiving Title II SSA retirement, disability, or survivor’s auxiliary benefits who need to report an event that could affect their payments.

3. Use of Information Technology to Collect the Information

SSA did not create an electronic version of form SSA-1425 under the agency’s Government Paperwork Elimination Act due to the moderate volume of respondents, and because many individuals report these events in person or by telephone. In addition, because one of the reporting events on this form, change of address, can occur frequently, change of address is now an option on the SSA website.  It is under the "What you can do online" menu. So, while there are no plans to schedule the entire form itself for electronic implementation, we might consider including additional reporting events for future on-line implementation.

4. Why We Cannot Use Duplicate Information

The nature of the information we are collecting and the manner in which we are collecting it preclude duplication. SSA does not use another collection instrument to obtain similar data.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Respondents

This collection does not affect small businesses or other small entities.

6. Consequence of Not Collecting Information or Collecting it Less Frequently

If we did not use Form SSA-1425, beneficiaries could receive incorrect payments, because of incomplete or inaccurate records. We also would not know if a benefit payment was correct until after we learned of the beneficiary’s change in circumstances, possibly resulting in overpayments.

There are no technical or legal obstacles to burden reduction.

7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances that would cause SSA to conduct this information collection in a manner inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Solicitation of Public Comment and Other Consultations with the Public

The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice published on September 24, 2012 at

77 FR 58903, and we received no public comments. The 30-day FRN published on November 29, 2012 at 77 FR 71204. If we receive any comments in response to this Notice, we will forward them to OMB. We did not consult with the public in the maintenance of this form.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents

SSA provides no payment or gifts to the respondents.

10. Assurances of Confidentiality

SSA protects and holds confidential the information it collects 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. Justification for Sensitive Questions

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

12. Estimates of Public Reporting Burden

Modality of Completion	Number of Responses	Frequency of Response	Average Burden per Response (minutes)	Estimated Total Annual Burden (hours)
SSA-1425	70,000	1	5	5,833

The total burden for this ICR is 5,833. This figure represents burden hours, and we did not calculate a separate cost burden.

13. Annual Cost to the Respondents

This collection does not impose a known cost burden on the respondents.

14. Annual Cost to Federal Government

The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $107,800. This estimate is a projection of the costs for printing and distributing the collection instrument and for collecting the information.

15. Program Changes or Adjustments to the Information Collection Request

There are no changes to the public reporting burden.

16. Plans for Publication Information Collection Results

SSA will not publish the results of the information collection.

17. Displaying the OMB Approval Expiration Date

OMB granted SSA an exemption from the requirement to print the OMB expiration date on its program forms. SSA produces millions of public-use forms with life cycles exceeding those of an OMB approval. Since SSA does not periodically revise and reprint its public-use forms (e.g., on an annual basis), OMB granted this exemption so SSA would not have to destroy stocks of otherwise useable forms with expired OMB approval dates, avoiding Government waste.

18. Exception to Certification Statement

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

SSA did not use statistical methods for this information collection.