Justification to Non-Material Change

Notice to OMB Reviewer:

The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation (DLHWC) is requesting this non-material change in anticipation of release of a new web portal (seaportal.dol-esa.gov) that will be available on October 23, 2014.

To improve upon the capabilities for the public to submit DLHWC documents, OWCP is developing this alternative for the electronic submission of all case related documents associated with an individual’s particular claim file.  This application will be available to anyone with internet access and allow the user to submit any form or document to the respective claim file.  Any stakeholder that currently mails or faxes documents to the DLHWC will be able to use this portal to submit documents directly to the case, including the claimant, the employer, authorized representatives, medical providers, etc..    There will be no cost to use this electronic document upload feature and no registration will be required. 

Use of this submission option will not be required; it will only be an option that will be available along with mailing or faxing.  A similar platform has been used successfully in the DFEC program (one of the other programs under the OWCP umbrella) since November 2011.

There will be no change in the collection of information and no change to any form(s) in this collection. No adjustment is being made to the time burden or cost estimates currently established for this collection since this is an option only and it is unclear whether and how many times it will be used, until it is actually available for use.