Justification for Non-Substantive Changes for 0960-0648

Justification for Non-Substantive Changes for Form SSA-1414

Credit Card Payment Form

OMB No. 0960-0648

Justification for Non-Substantive Changes to the Collection

Change 1: We are adding a section to obtain the 3-digit Card Verification Value (CVV) to the form.

Justification 1: The Social Security Administration (SSA) provides services to its customers through a network of field offices (FO) throughout the United States and its territories. FOs assist individuals who are applying for or receiving benefits under several SSA benefit programs. They also process and maintain information related to individuals’ Social Security records. In certain situations, statutes and regulations authorize us to charge fees for providing non-program information.

SSA is developing an automated system to assist FO staff and managers with processing and collecting fees for non-programmatic services, the Social Security Electronic Remittance System (SERS). SERS will provide FOs with an automated solution to collect, track, record, and report fees collected for providing various non-programmatic services to individuals and third parties. SERS will accept check and credit card payments for both walk-in and mail-in requests for information.

We will implement SERS in two phases, first in 20 pilot FOs starting in May followed by a nationwide rollout by the end of calendar year (CY) 2014. SERS will replace manual business processes, promote standardized business practices and fee collection procedures in FOs, and will provide a streamlined remittance process and an automated system solution to collect fees for services.

SERS will address the agency’s vision to eliminate cash transactions, use card swipe and check scanner technology, and adopt processes that are prevalent throughout the banking and retail sectors. FOs will know instantaneously whether debit and credit card transactions process successfully, and will no longer need to compile and send paper checks and SSA-1414 forms to headquarters for processing.

Major credit card banks like Visa and MasterCard require the capture of three pieces of credit card information when the cardholder is not present: the credit card number, expiration date, and the 3-digit CVV. The SERS credit card swipe devices installed across the nation’s field offices will follow these payment card industry (PCI) standards. The current SSA-1414 does not capture the CVV. Without this code, we cannot process credit card requests through the mail.

The SERS pilot will begin on May 20, 2014. To accept credit card payments received by mail, the SSA-1414 must be changed prior to this date.