2020-20299. Agency Information Collection Activities: 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 a revision 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]

(SSA), Social Security Administration, OLCA; Attn: Reports Clearance Director, 3100 West High Rise, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21235, Fax: [phone], Email address: [e-mail]

Or you may submit your comments online through www.regulations.gov,, referencing Docket ID Number [SSA-2020-0048].

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 October 15, 2020. Individuals can obtain copies of the OMB clearance package by writing to [e-mail].

Disability Update Report—20 CFR 404.1589-404.1595 and 416.988-416.996-0960-0511. As part of our statutory requirements, SSA periodically uses Form SSA-455, the Disability Update Report, to evaluate current Title II disability beneficiaries' and Title XVI disability payment recipients' continued eligibility for disability payments. Specifically, SSA uses the form to determine if: (1) There is enough evidence to warrant referring the respondent for a full medical Continuing Disability Review (CDR); (2) the respondent's impairments are still present and indicative of no medical improvement, precluding the need for a full medical CDR; or (3) the respondent has unresolved work-related issues. SSA mails Form SSA-455 to specific disability recipients, whom we select as possibly qualifying for the full medical CDR process. SSA pre-fills the form with data specific to the disability recipient, except for the sections we ask the recipients to complete. When SSA receives the completed form, we scan it into SSA's system. This allows us to gather the information electronically, and enables SSA to process the returned forms through automated decision logic to decide the proper course of action to take. The respondents are recipients of Title II and Title XVI Social Security disability payments.

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

Modality of completion	Number of respondents	Frequency of response	Average burden per response (minutes)	Estimated total annual burden (hours)	Average theoretical hourly cost amount (dollars)*	Average wait time in field office (minutes) **	Total annual opportunity cost (dollars) ***
SSA-455	1,300,000	1	15	325,000	$10.73 *	24 **	$9,066,850 ***
* We based this figure on average DI payments based on SSA's current FY 2020 data (https://www.ssa.gov/​legislation/​2020Fact%20Sheet.pdf).
** We based this figure on the average FY 2020 wait times for field offices, based on SSA's current management information data.
*** This figure does not represent actual costs that SSA is imposing on recipients of Social Security payments to complete this application; rather, these are theoretical opportunity costs for the additional time respondents will spend to complete the application. There is no actual charge to respondents to complete the application.

Dated: September 10, 2020.

Naomi Sipple,

Reports Clearance Officer, Social Security Administration.