2023-14447. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Request and Comment Request

The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a list of information collection packages requiring clearance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with Public Law 104–13, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, effective October 1, 1995. This notice includes an extension of an OMB-approved information collection.

SSA is soliciting comments on the accuracy of the agency's burden estimate; the need for the information; its practical utility; ways to enhance its quality, utility, and clarity; and ways to minimize burden on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. Mail, email, or fax your comments and recommendations on the information collection(s) to the OMB Desk Officer and SSA Reports Clearance Officer at the following addresses or fax numbers.

(OMB) Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for SSA, Fax: [phone], Email address: [e-mail]. Submit your comments online referencing Docket ID Number [SSA–2023–0025].

(SSA) Social Security Administration, OLCA, Attn: Reports Clearance Director, Mail Stop 3253 Altmeyer, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21235, Fax: [phone], Email address: [e-mail].

Or you may submit your comments online through https://www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain, referencing Docket ID Number [SSA–2020–0025].

I. The information collection below is pending at SSA. SSA will submit it to OMB within 60 days from the date of this notice. To be sure we consider your comments, we must receive them no later than September 8, 2023. Individuals can obtain copies of the collection instruments by writing to the above email address.

Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery—0960–0788. SSA, as part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public to comment on the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery” for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501). We developed this collection as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the process for seeking feedback from the public on service delivery.

Under the auspices of Executive Order 12862, Setting Customer Service Standards, SSA conducts multiple satisfaction surveys each year. This proposed information collection activity provides a means to garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with SSA's commitment to improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions (not statistical surveys) that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of study. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences, and expectations; provide an early warning of issues with service; or focus attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between SSA and our customers and stakeholders.

The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: timeliness; appropriateness; accuracy of information; courtesy; efficiency of service delivery; and resolution of issues with service delivery. We will assess responses to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If we do not collect this information, we would not have access to vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on SSA's services.

We will only submit a collection for approval under this generic clearance if it meets the following conditions: (1) the collections are voluntary; (2) the collections are low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government; (3) the collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies; (4) the collections elicit opinions from respondents who previously had experience with Social Security programs or services, or are likely to do so in the near future; (5) we collect personally identifiable information (PII) only to the extent necessary and we do not retain it; (6) we will use information gathered only internally for general service improvement and program management purposes and we will not release it outside of the agency; (7) we will not use information we gather for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions; and (8) information we gather will yield qualitative information; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the population of study.

Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the overall population. This type of generic clearance for qualitative information will not be used for quantitative information collections that are designed to yield reliably actionable results, such as monitoring trends over time or documenting program performance. Such data uses require more rigorous designs that address the target population to which generalizations will be made. Depending on the study design and the type of results being elicited, such collections may still be eligible for submission for other generic mechanisms that are designed to yield quantitative results.

As a general matter, information collections will not result in any new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

The respondents are recipients of SSA services (including most members of the public), professionals, and individuals who work on behalf of SSA beneficiaries.

Type of Request: Extension of an OMB-approved information collection.

Affected Public: Individuals and households, businesses and organizations, State, Local or Tribal government.

Total Estimated Number of Respondents: 5,454,212.

Below we provide projected average estimates for the next three years:

Annual Respondents: 1,818,404.

Annual Responses: 1,818,404.

Frequency of Response: Once per request.

Average minutes per Response: 13 minutes (12.6912).

Estimated Annual Burden: 384,629 hours.

II. SSA submitted the information collection below to OMB for clearance. Your comments regarding this information collection would be most useful if OMB and SSA receive them 30 days from the date of this publication. To be sure we consider your comments, we must receive them no later than August 9, 2023. Individuals can obtain copies of this OMB clearance package by writing to [e-mail].

Generic Clearance for the Collection of Improving Customer Experience (OMB Circular A–11, Section 280 Implementation)—0960–0818. A modern, streamlined and responsive customer experience means: raising government-wide customer experience to the average of the private sector service industry; developing indicators for high-impact Federal programs to monitor progress towards excellent customer experience and mature digital services; and providing the structure (including increasing transparency) and resources to ensure customer experience is a focal point for agency leadership. This proposed information collection activity provides a means to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner in accordance with the Administration's commitment to improving customer service delivery as discussed in section 280 of OMB Circular A–11 at https://www.whitehouse.gov/​wp-content/​uploads/​2018/​06/​s280.pdf. As discussed in OMB guidance, agencies should identify their highest-impact customer journeys (using customer volume, annual program cost, and/or knowledge of customer priority as weighting factors) and select touchpoints/transactions within those journeys to collect feedback.

These results will be used to improve the delivery of Federal services and programs. It will also provide government-wide data on customer experience that can be displayed on www.performance.gov to help build transparency and accountability of Federal programs to the customers they serve.

As a general matter, these information collections will not result in any new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

SSA will only submit collections if they meet the following criteria.

• The collections are voluntary;
• The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on considerations of total burden hours or burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government;
• The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
• The collections elicit opinions from respondents who had experience with Social Security programs or may have experience with the programs or services, or expect to do so in the near future;
• Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
• Information gathered is intended to be used for general service improvement and program management purposes; and

• Upon agreement between OMB and the agency all or a subset of information may be released as part of A–11, Section 280 requirements only on performance.gov. Summaries of customer research and user testing activities may be included in public-facing customer journey maps.

• Additional release of data must be done coordinated with OMB.

These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable communications between the Agency, its customers and stakeholders, and OMB as it monitors agency compliance on section 280. These responses will inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on services will be unavailable.

The respondents are individuals and households, businesses and organizations, State, local or Tribal government.

Type of Request: Extension of an OMB-approved information collection.

Affected Public: Individuals and households, businesses and organizations, State, local or Tribal government.

Total Estimated Number of Respondents: 17,866,680.

Below we provide projected average estimates for the next three years:

Annual Respondents: 5,955,560.

Annual Responses: 1,142,475.

Frequency of Response: Once per request.

Average minutes per Response: 12 minutes (11.51).

Estimated Annual Burden: 384,629 hours.

Dated: July 3, 2023.

Faye Lipsky,

Staff Director, Office of Regulations and Reports Clearance, Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs, Social Security Administration.