[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 27 (Monday, February 10, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7736-7738]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-02776]


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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 one new information collection, and revisions 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 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: 202-395-6974, Email address: [email protected].
(SSA), Social Security Administration, OLCA, Attn: Reports Clearance 
Director, 3100 West High Rise, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 
21235, Fax: 410-966-2830, Email 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 
April 11, 2014. Individuals can obtain copies of the collection 
instruments by writing to the above email address.
    1. Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (PROMISE) Evaluation--0960-
NEW.

Background

    The Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (PROMISE) demonstration 
pursues positive outcomes for children with disabilities who receive 
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and their families by reducing 
dependency on SSI. The Department of Education (ED) awarded six 
cooperative agreements to states to improve the provision and 
coordination of services and support for children with disabilities who 
receive SSI and their families to achieve improved education and 
employment outcomes. ED awarded PROMISE funds to five single-state 
projects, and to one six-state consortium.\1\ With support from the 
Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Health and Human 
Services (HHS), SSA will evaluate the six PROMISE projects. SSA 
contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the evaluation.
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    \1\ The six-state consortium project goes by the name Achieving 
Success by Promoting Readiness for Education and Employment (ASPIRE) 
rather than by PROMISE.
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    Under PROMISE, targeted outcomes for youth include an enhanced 
sense of self-determination; achievement of secondary and post-
secondary educational credentials; an attainment of early work 
experiences culminating with competitive employment in an integrated 
setting; and long-term reduction in reliance on SSI. Outcomes of 
interest for families include heightened expectations for and support 
of the long-term self-sufficiency of their youth; parent or guardian 
attainment of education and training credentials; and increases in 
earnings and total income. To achieve these outcomes, we expect the 
PROMISE projects to make better use of existing resources by improving 
service coordination among multiple state and local agencies and 
programs.
    ED, SSA, DOL, and HHS intend the PROMISE projects to address key 
limitations in the existing service system for youth with disabilities. 
By intervening early in the lives of these young people, at ages 14-16, 
the projects will engage the youth and their families well before 
critical decisions regarding the age 18 redetermination are upon them. 
We expect the required partnerships among the various state and Federal 
agencies that serve youth with disabilities to result in improved 
integration of services and fewer dropped handoffs as youth move from 
one agency to another. By requiring the programs to engage and serve 
families and provide youth with paid work experiences, the initiative 
is mandating the adoption of critical best practices in promoting the 
independence of youth with disabilities.

Project Description

    SSA is requesting clearance for the collection of data needed to 
implement and evaluate PROMISE. The evaluation will provide empirical 
evidence on the impact of the intervention for youth and their families 
in several critical areas, including: (1) Improved educational 
attainment; (2) increased employment skills, experience, and earnings; 
and (3) long-term reduction in use of public benefits. We will base the 
PROMISE evaluation on a rigorous design that will entail the random 
assignment of approximately 2,000 youth in each of the six projects to 
treatment or control groups (12,000 total). Youth in the treatment 
groups will be eligible for enhanced services from the demonstration 
programs, whereas youth in the control groups will be eligible only for 
those services already available in their communities independent of 
the interventions.
    The evaluation will assess the effect of PROMISE services on 
educational attainment, employment, earnings, and reduced receipt of 
disability payments. The three components of this evaluation include:
     The process analysis, which will document program models, 
assess the relationships among the partner organizations, document 
whether the programs are implemented as planned, identify features of 
the programs that may account for their impacts on youth and families, 
and identify lessons for future programs with similar objectives.
     The impact analysis, which will determine whether youth 
and families in the treatment groups receive more services than their 
counterparts in the control groups. It will also determine whether 
treatment group members have better results than control group members 
with respect to the targeted outcomes noted above.
     The cost-benefit analysis, which will assess whether the 
benefits of PROMISE, including increases in

[[Page 7737]]

employment and reductions in benefit receipt, are large enough to 
justify its costs. We will conduct this assessment from a range of 
perspectives, including those of the participants, state and Federal 
governments, SSA, and society as a whole.
    SSA planned several data collection efforts for the evaluation. 
These include: (1) follow-up interviews with youth and their parent or 
guardian 18 months and 5 years after enrollment; (2) phone and in-
person interviews with local program administrators, program 
supervisors, and service delivery staff at two points in time over the 
course of the demonstration; (3) two rounds of focus groups with 
participating youth in the treatment group; (4) two rounds of focus 
groups with parents or guardians of participating youth; and (5) 
collection of administrative data.
    At this time, SSA requests clearance only for the interviews we 
will conduct with program staff and the focus group discussions we will 
conduct with youth and parents or guardians. We will conduct these 
interviews and group discussions twice: once in 2014, and once in 2016. 
SSA will request clearance for the 18-month and 5-year survey 
interviews in a future submission. The respondents are PROMISE program 
staff, the youth participants in the PROMISE program, and the parents 
or guardians of the youth participants.
    Type of Request: This is a new information collection.

                                   2014 Interviews and Focus Group Discussions
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of     Frequency  of    burden per       Estimated
             Modality of completion                  responses       response        response      total annual
                                                                                     (minutes)    burden (hours)
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Staff Interviews with Administrators or                       75               1              66              83
 Directors......................................
Staff Interviews with PROMISE Project Staff.....             145               1              66             160
Youth Focus Groups--Non-participants............             320               1               5              27
Youth Focus Groups--Participants................              80               1             100             133
Parents or Guardian Focus Groups--Non-                       320               1               5              27
 participants...................................
Parents or Guardian Focus Groups--Participants..              80               1             100             133
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
        Totals..................................           1,020  ..............  ..............             563
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                                   2016 Interviews and Focus Group Discussions
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of     Frequency of     burden per       Estimated
             Modality of completion                  responses       response        response      total annual
                                                                                     (minutes)    burden (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Interviews with Administrators or                       75               1              66              83
 Directors......................................
Staff Interviews with PROMISE Project Staff.....             145               1              66             160
Youth Focus Groups--Non-participants............             320               1               5              27
Youth Focus Groups--Participants................              80               1             100             133
Parents or Guardian Focus Groups--Non-                       320               1               5              27
 participants...................................
Parents or Guardian Focus Groups--Participants..              80               1             100             133
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
Totals..........................................           1,020  ..............  ..............             563
                                                 ===============================================================
        Grand Total.............................           2,040  ..............  ..............           1,126
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    2. Request for Social Security Earnings Information--20 CFR 404.810 
and 401.100--0960-0525. The Social Security Act permits wage earners, 
or their authorized representative, to request Social Security earnings 
information from SSA using Form SSA-7050-F4. SSA uses the information 
to verify the requestor's right to access the information and to 
produce the earnings statement. The respondents are wage earners and 
their authorized representatives.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.

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                                                                                Average  burden  Estimated total
           Modality of completion                Number of      Frequency  of    per  response    annual  burden
                                                respondents        response        (minutes)          (hours)
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SSA-7050-F4.................................          66,800                1               11           12,247
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    3. Request for Medical Treatment in an SSA Employee Health 
Facility: Patient Self-Administered or Staff Administered Care--0960-
0772. SSA operates onsite Employee Health Clinics (EHC) in eight 
different states. These clinics provide health care for all SSA 
employees including treatments of personal medical conditions when 
authorized through a physician. Form SSA-5072 is the employee's 
personal physician's order form. The information we collect on Form 
SSA-5072 gives the EHC nurses the guidance they need by law to perform 
certain medical procedures and to administer prescription medications 
such as allergy immunotherapy. In addition, the information allows the 
SSA Medical Officer to determine whether the treatment can be 
administered safely and appropriately in the SSA EHCs. Respondents are 
physicians of SSA

[[Page 7738]]

employees who need to have medical treatment in an SSA EHC.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.

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                                                                                      Average        Estimated
                                     Number of     Frequency  of     Number of      burden per     total  annual
     Modality of completion         respondents      response        responses       response         burden
                                                                                     (minutes)        (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SSA-5072........................              25               1              25               5               2
Annually........................
SSA-5072........................              75               2             150               5              13
Bi-Annually.....................
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    Totals......................             100  ..............             175  ..............              15
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    II. SSA submitted the information collection below to OMB for 
clearance. Your comments regarding the 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 March 12, 2014. Individuals can obtain copies of the OMB 
clearance packages by writing to [email protected].
    Petition to Obtain Approval of a Fee for Representing a Claimant 
Before the Social Security Administration--20 CFR 404.1720 and 
404.1725; 20 CFR 416.1520 and 416.1525--0960-0104. SSA attorney and 
non-attorney claimant representatives use Form SSA-1560-U4 to petition 
SSA for authorization to charge and collect a fee. Claimants may also 
use the form to agree with or contest the requested fee amount or other 
information the representative provides on the form. SSA officials use 
the form to determine a reasonable fee amount representatives may 
charge for their services. The respondents are attorneys and non-
attorneys who represent Social Security claimants and their claimants.
    Type of Request: Revision of an OMB-approved information 
collection.

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                                                                                Average  burden  Estimated total
           Modality of completion                Number of      Frequency  of    per  response    annual  burden
                                                respondents        response        (minutes)          (hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SSA-1560-U4.................................          48,110                1               30           24,055
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    Dated: February 5, 2014.
Faye Lipsky,
Reports Clearance Director, Social Security Administration.
[FR Doc. 2014-02776 Filed 2-7-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P