[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 163 (Wednesday, August 22, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Page 50757]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-20559]



[[Page 50757]]

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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

 [Docket No. SSA-2012-0026]


Charging Standard Administrative Fees for Nonprogram-Related 
Information

AGENCY: Social Security Administration.

ACTION: Notice of standard administrative fees for providing 
information and related services for nonprogram-related purposes.

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SUMMARY: We are announcing the standardized administrative fees we will 
charge to recover our full cost of providing information and related 
services for nonprogram purposes we provide to the public. Previously, 
the fees we charged for nonprogram information requests were not 
standardized. Standard fee implementation will ensure fees are 
consistent and that we collect the full cost of supplying our 
information when a request is for a purpose not directly related to our 
administration of a program under the Social Security Act (Act). We 
expect the implementation of standard fees across all field offices 
will allow us to provide consistent service to members of the public 
who request information from us for nonprogram-related purposes.

DATES: The standard administrative fees will apply to requests for 
information for nonprogram-related purposes we receive on or after 
August 22, 2012.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Huelskamp, Social Security 
Administration, Office of Finance, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, 
MD 21235-6401, (410) 966-4890 for information about this notice. For 
information on eligibility or filing for benefits, call our national 
toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or visit our 
Internet site, Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We administer several benefit programs under 
the Act, including the Retirement and Survivors Insurance (RSI), 
Disability Insurance (DI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) 
programs. To administer these programs, we collect information from 
individuals and entities, such as other governmental agencies, and then 
store this information in our systems. Our employees can retrieve this 
information by accessing our computer systems. Generally, we use the 
information we collect and store for purposes of administering the 
Social Security benefit programs. However, sometimes individuals ask us 
to release this information to appointed representatives, private 
companies, or other third parties. When we release this information for 
a purpose not related to implementation of our programs, we consider it 
a nonprogram-related service. Nonprogram-related services are not 
within our mission, and we are required to recover the cost of 
providing those services.
    Section 1106 of the Act and the Privacy Act \1\ authorize the 
Commissioner of Social Security to promulgate regulations regarding 
agency records and information and to charge fees for providing 
information and related services. Our regulations and operating 
instructions identify when we will charge fees for information.\2\ 
Under our regulations, whenever we determine a request for information 
is for any purpose not directly related to the administration of the 
Social Security programs, we require the requester to pay the full cost 
of providing the information.
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    \1\ 42 U.S.C. 1306 and 5 U.S.C. 552a, respectively.
    \2\ See 20 CFR 402.170, 402.175; Program Operations Manual 
System (POMS) GN 03311.005.
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    We receive a large number of requests for nonprogram-related 
information from third parties, such as private companies, as well as 
individuals. The number of applications for RSI, DI, and SSI we receive 
continues to grow. In addition to processing applications, our field 
offices are responsible for other program-related workloads, such as 
conducting continuing disability reviews and processing requests for 
original Social Security Numbers (SSN) and replacement Social Security 
cards. These services relate directly to our mission and the programs 
we administer under the Act. Nonprogram- related services are not 
within our mission, and we recover our full cost when we perform those 
services, with certain limited exceptions.\3\
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    \3\ Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Circular A-25, User 
Charges.
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    The existing process for determining and charging fees on a case-
by-case basis has become unwieldy and inefficient. Consequently, we are 
implementing standard fees that are calculated to reflect the full cost 
of providing information for nonprogram-related purposes, consistent 
with section 1106 of the Act and our regulations, 20 CFR 402.175(a). 
This uniform approach will allow the public to understand the fee 
associated with a particular request for nonprogram-related information 
and make it easier for our field offices to determine the full cost of 
supplying the nonprogram-related information. We will implement the new 
fee schedule at all of our field offices simultaneously. For 
nonprogram-related requests not listed below, we will continue to 
charge fees calculated on a case-by-case basis to recover our full cost 
of supplying the information.
    The new standard fee schedule per request:

 
 
 
Copy an Electronic Folder.......................................     $49
Copy a Paper Folder.............................................      86
Letter Forwarding...............................................      35
3rd Party Manual SSN Verification...............................      29
Regional Office Certification...................................      48
Office of Central Operations Certification......................      32
W2/W3 Requests..................................................      38
Record Extract..................................................      33
 

    We will evaluate these standard fees at least every two years to 
ensure we continue to capture the full costs associated with providing 
information for nonprogram-related purposes. We will require advance 
payment of the standard fee by check, money order, or credit card. We 
will not accept cash. If we revise any of the standard fees, we will 
publish another notice in the Federal Register.

Additional Information

    Additional information is available on our Web site at http://socialsecurity.gov/pgm/business.htm or by written request to: Social 
Security Administration, Office of Public Inquiries, Windsor Park 
Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235.

    Dated: August 15, 2012.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 2012-20559 Filed 8-21-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P