[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 16 (Thursday, January 25, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3468-3469]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-1089]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Request and 
Comment Request

    The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a list of 
information collection packages that will require clearance by the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with Pub. L. 104-
13, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, effective October 1, 1995. The 
information collection packages that may be included in this notice are 
for new information collections, approval of existing information 
collections, revisions to OMB-approved information collections, and 
extensions (no change) of OMB-approved information collections.
    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 on ways to minimize 
burden on respondents, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology. Written comments 
and recommendations regarding the information collection(s) should be 
submitted to the OMB Desk Officer and the SSA Reports Clearance 
Officer. The information can be mailed and/or faxed to the individuals 
at the addresses and fax numbers listed below:

(OMB) Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for SSA, Fax: 
202-395-6974.
(SSA) Social Security Administration, DCFAM, Attn: Reports Clearance 
Officer, 1333 Annex Building, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21235, 
Fax: 410-965-6400.

    I. The information collections listed below are pending at SSA and 
will be submitted to OMB within 60 days from the date of this notice. 
Therefore, your comments should be submitted to SSA within 60 days from 
the date of this publication. You can obtain copies of the collection 
instruments by calling the SSA Reports Clearance Officer at 410-965-
0454 or by writing to the address listed above.
    1. Farm Self-Employment Questionnaire--20 CFR 404.1095--0960-0061. 
Section 211(a) of the Social Security Act requires the existence of a 
trade or business as a prerequisite for determining whether an 
individual or partnership may have ``net earnings from self-
employment.'' Form SSA-7156 elicits the information necessary to 
determine the existence of an agricultural trade or business and 
subsequent covered earnings for Social Security entitlement purposes. 
The respondents are applicants for Social Security benefits, whose 
entitlement depends on whether the worker has covered earnings from 
self-employment as a farmer.
    Type of Request: Extension of an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 47,500.
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden Per Response: 10 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 7,917 hours.
    2. Accelerated Benefits Demonstration Project--0960-NEW. The 
Accelerated Benefits Demonstration Project is a multi-phase study 
designed to assess whether providing new Social Security Disability 
Insurance (SSDI) recipients with certain benefits will stabilize or 
improve their health and help them return to work early. In this long-
term study, new SSDI disability recipients (i.e., those who have just 
begun receiving benefits and who have at least 18 months remaining 
before they qualify for Medicare) will be divided into three groups: 
(1) A control group that will just receive their regular SSDI benefits; 
(2) a treatment group that will receive immediate access to health care 
benefits; and (3) a treatment group that will receive health care 
benefits and additional care management, employment, and benefits 
services and support. The study, which will be

[[Page 3469]]

conducted for SSA by research contractors and health care experts, will 
assess if the accelerated benefits help new beneficiaries improve and 
return to work earlier and if there is a difference between the 
treatment groups. The respondents are beneficiaries who have just begun 
receiving SSDI disability benefits and are not yet eligible for 
Medicare health benefits.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden: 1,570 hours.

 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                          Average burden per    Estimated annual
     Part of Study       Number of respondents   Frequency of response    response  (minutes)    burden  (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Focus Groups                      40                       1                     120            80
      Pilot Survey                     500                       1                      30           250
    Actual Survey/                   2,000                       1                      30         1,000
      Assessment of
 Treatment Efficacy
 (``Baseline Survey'')
Three-Month Follow-Up                  480                       1                      30           240
 Survey (``Early Use
          Survey'')
                       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.............               3,020      ......................  ......................     1,570
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    Please Note: This Notice was originally published on January 8, 
2007, at 72 FR 834. At that time, there was an inadvertent error. In 
places where we stated ``SSI,'' we meant to say ``SSDI.'' This 
notice corrects that error; all other information remains unchanged.

    3. Authorization to Disclose Information to the Social Security 
Administration--20 CFR Subpart O, 404.1512 and Subpart I, 416.912--
0960-0623. SSA must obtain sufficient medical evidence to make 
eligibility determinations for the SSDI benefits and Supplemental 
Security Income (SSI) payments. For SSA to obtain medical evidence, an 
applicant must authorize his or her medical source(s) to release the 
information to SSA. The applicant may use form SSA-827 to provide 
consent for release of information. Generally, the State DDS completes 
the form(s) based on information provided by the applicant, and sends 
the form(s) to the designated medical source(s). The respondents are 
applicants for SSDI and SSI payments.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 3,853,928.
    Frequency of Response: 1 (Average forms per case 4).
    Average Burden Per Response: *13 minutes.
    Total Annual Responses: 15,415,712.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 835,018 hours.

    * Please Note: Respondents to the SSA-827 collection complete a 
total four forms. SSA estimates that it takes a claimant 10 minutes 
to read both sides and sign the initial SSA-827. However, once a 
claimant reads the first form, it takes considerably less time to 
date and sign the subsequent forms because the forms do not have to 
be read again. SSA estimates the signing and dating of the three 
additional forms at one minute per form, resulting in three 
additional minutes. Therefore, the total time it takes to complete 
all four SSA-827's is 13 minutes.

    II. The information collections listed below have been submitted to 
OMB for clearance. Your comments on the information collections would 
be most useful if received by OMB and SSA within 30 days from the date 
of this publication. You can obtain a copy of the OMB clearance 
packages by calling the SSA Reports Clearance Officer at 410-965-0454, 
or by writing to the address listed above.
    Representative Payee Report--20 CFR 404.2035, 404.2065, 416.635, 
and 416.665--0960-0068. SSA uses forms SSA-623 and SSA-6230 to 
determine if (1) Payments sent to individual representative payees have 
been used for SSDI beneficiaries and SSI recipients' current 
maintenance and personal needs and (2) the representative payee 
continues to be a capable representative concerned with the 
individual's welfare. The respondents are individual representative 
payees for recipients of SSDI benefits and SSI payments.
    Type of Request: Revision to an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 5,500,000.
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden Per Response: 15 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 1,375,000 hours.

    Dated: Janaury 19, 2007.
Elizabeth A. Davidson,
Reports Clearance Officer, Social Security Administration.
[FR Doc. E7-1089 Filed 1-24-07; 8:45 am]
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