[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 134 (Wednesday, July 13, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41320-41323]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-17555]


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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 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 full clearance of an emergency OMB-approved collection and 
revisions to 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

[[Page 41321]]

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, e-mail, 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: 202-395-6974, E-mail address: [email protected].
    (SSA), Social Security Administration, DCBFM, Attn: Reports 
Clearance Officer, 1333 Annex Building, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, 
MD 21235, Fax: 410-965-6400, E-mail address: [email protected].
I. The information collections below are pending at SSA. SSA will 
submit them 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 12, 2011. Individuals can obtain copies of the collection 
instruments by calling the SSA Reports Clearance Officer at 410-965-
8783 or by writing to the above e-mail address.

1. Claimant's Work Background--20 CFR 404.1565(b) and 20 CFR 
416.965(b)--0960-0300

    Sections 205(a) and 1631(e) of the Social Security Act (Act) 
provide the Commissioner of Social Security with the authority to 
establish procedures for determining if a claimant is entitled to 
disability benefits. SSA may ask individuals who are requesting a 
hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), due to a denied 
benefits application, to provide background information about work they 
performed in the past 15 years. SSA uses the information collected on 
Form HA-4633 to assess an individual's disability and review an updated 
summary of the individual's relevant work history, as required by an 
ALJ to accurately assess the claimant's disability. The respondents are 
claimants for disability benefits under title II or title XVI who 
requested a hearing before an ALJ.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 200,000.
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden per Response: 15 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 50,000 hours.

2. Statement of Claimant or Other Person-Medical Resident FICA Refund 
Claims--20 CFR 404.702 and 416.570--0960-0786

    The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is contacting medical residents 
(and their employers) who filed Federal Insurance Contributions Act 
(FICA) refund claims from 1993 through 2005. Those medical residents 
who claimed their residencies were actually training, not employment, 
should not have been subject to FICA tax. The IRS decided to honor 
these claims and issue a full refund of FICA tax, plus statutory 
interest, to those who wish to participate in the refund resolution. 
SSA will remove wages from the participating residents' earnings 
records for the period of the refund requests, which will cause the 
residents' recorded earnings to decrease. This not only affects 
earnings for future retirement benefits, but also could adversely 
affect those residents (or their beneficiaries) who currently receive 
Social Security benefits. To ensure residents understand the potential 
impact on their benefits, SSA is contacting those residents who will be 
adversely affected and explaining the effect on their Social Security 
benefits if they accept the IRS FICA refund. To document the residents' 
decision to accept or revoke the refund, SSA will telephone the 
residents and explain how accepting the refund will affect their Social 
Security benefits. We will then mail the SSA-795-OP2 to each resident 
to sign and return to SSA. If SSA cannot reach the resident by phone, 
we will send a contact letter and the SSA-795-OP2 to the resident to 
complete and return to SSA. Once we have the information, we will 
forward the signed forms to the IRS for the residents who no longer 
want the FICA refund.
    Type of Request: Full approval of an emergency OMB-approved 
information collection.
    Number of Respondents: 496.
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden per Response: 4 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 33 hours.
II. SSA submitted the information collections below to OMB for 
clearance. Your comments regarding the information collections would be 
most useful if OMB and SSA receive them within 30 days from the date of 
this publication. To be sure we consider your comments, we must receive 
them no later than August 12, 2011. Individuals can obtain copies of 
the OMB clearance packages by calling the SSA Reports Clearance Officer 
at 410-965-8783 or by writing to the above e-mail address.

1. Farm Arrangement Questionnaire--20 CFR 404.1082(c)--0960-0064

    When self-employed workers submit earnings data to SSA, they cannot 
count rental income from a farm unless they demonstrate ``material 
participation'' in the farm's operation. A material participation 
arrangement means the farm's owners must perform a combination of 
physical duties, management decisions, and capital investment in the 
farm they rent out. In such cases, SSA uses Form SSA-7157, the Farm 
Arrangement Questionnaire, to document material participation. The 
respondents are workers who rent farmland to others, are involved in 
the operation of the farm, and want to claim countable income from work 
they perform relating to the farm.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 38,000.
    Average Burden per Response: 30 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 19,000 hours.

2. Information Collections Conducted by State Disability Determination 
Services on Behalf of SSA--20 CFR, subpart P, 404.1503a, 404.1512, 
404.1513, 404.1514, 404.1517, 404.1519; 20 CFR subpart Q, 404.1613, 
404.1614, 404.1624; 20 CFR subpart I, 416.903a, 416.912, 416.913, 
416.914, 416.917, 416.919 and 20 CFR subpart J, 416.1013, 416.1024, 
416.1014--0960-0555

    State Disability Determination Services (DDS) collect the 
information necessary to administer the Social Security Disability 
Insurance and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. They collect 
medical evidence from consultative examination (CE) sources, credential 
information from CE source applicants, and Medical Evidence of Record 
(MER) from claimants' medical sources. The DDSs collect information 
from claimants regarding medical appointments and pain/symptoms. The 
respondents are medical providers, other sources of MER, and disability 
claimants.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.

CE Collections

    There are two collections from CE providers: (a) Medical evidence 
about claimants' medical condition(s) that DDSs use to make disability 
determinations when the claimant's own medical sources cannot or will 
not provide the required information; and

[[Page 41322]]

(b) proof of credentials from CE providers.
    (a) Medical Evidence from CE Providers

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                                                                                  Average burden     Estimated
              Collection instrument                  Number of     Frequency of    per response    annual burden
                                                    respondents      response        (minutes)        (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper Submissions...............................         100,000               1              30          50,000
Electronic Submissions..........................       3,500,000               1              10         583,333
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................       3,600,000  ..............  ..............         633,333
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     (b) CE Credentials

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                                                                                 Average burden     Estimated
            Collection instrument                Number of       Frequency of     per response    annual burden
                                                respondents        response        (minutes)         (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper Submission............................           3,000                1               15              750
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    There are two CE claimant collections: (a) Claimant completion of a 
response form indicating whether they intend to keep their CE 
appointment; and (b) claimant completion of a form indicating whether 
they want a copy of the CE report sent to their doctor.

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                                                                                  Average burden     Estimated
         Type of CE claimant collection              Number of     Frequency of    per response    annual burden
                                                    respondents      response        (minutes)        (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appointment Letter..............................       2,500,000               1               5         208,333
Claimants re: Report to Medical Provider........       1,500,000               1               5         125,000
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................       4,000,000  ..............  ..............         333,333
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MER Collections

    The DDSs collect MER information from the claimant's medical 
sources to determine the claimant's physical or mental status, prior to 
making a disability determination.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                  Average burden     Estimated
                                                     Number of     Frequency of    per response    annual burden
                                                    respondents      response        (minutes)        (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper submissions...............................         500,000               1              20         166,667
Electronic submissions..........................       5,500,000               1              12       1,100,000
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................       6,000,000  ..............  ..............       1,266,667
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pain/Other Symptoms/Impairment Information from Claimants

    The DDSs use information about pain/symptoms to determine how pain/
symptoms affect the claimant's ability to do work-related activities 
prior to making a disability determination.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                 Average burden     Estimated
                                                 Number of       Frequency of     per response    annual burden
                                                respondents        response        (minutes)         (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper submission............................       2,500,000                1               15          625,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 41323]]

    The total combined burden is 2,859,083.

    Note: This is a correction notice. SSA published incorrect 
burden information for this collection at 76 FR 16847, on March 25, 
2011. We are correcting this error here.


    Dated: July 8, 2011.
Faye Lipsky,
Reports Clearance Officer, Center for Reports Clearance, Social 
Security Administration.
[FR Doc. 2011-17555 Filed 7-12-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P