[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 130 (Monday, July 10, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43642-43643]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-14447]



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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

[Docket No: SSA-2020-0025]


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 an extension 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: 202-395-6974, Email address: [email protected]. Submit 
your comments online referencing Docket ID Number [SSA-2023-0025].
    (SSA) Social Security Administration, OLCA, Attn: Reports Clearance 
Director, Mail Stop 3253 Altmeyer, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 
21235, Fax: 833-410-1631, Email address: [email protected].
    Or you may submit your comments online through https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain, referencing Docket ID Number [SSA-
2020-0025].
    I. The information collection below is pending at SSA. SSA will 
submit it 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 8, 2023. Individuals can obtain copies of the collection 
instruments by writing to the above email address.
    Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on 
Agency Service Delivery--0960-0788. SSA, as part of our continuing 
effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general 
public to comment on the ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of 
Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' for approval under 
the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501). We developed this 
collection as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline 
the process for seeking feedback from the public on service delivery.
    Under the auspices of Executive Order 12862, Setting Customer 
Service Standards, SSA conducts multiple satisfaction surveys each 
year. This proposed information collection activity provides a means to 
garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, 
timely manner, in accordance with SSA's commitment to improving service 
delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides 
useful insights on perceptions and opinions (not statistical surveys) 
that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the 
population of study. This feedback will provide insights into customer 
or stakeholder perceptions, experiences, and expectations; provide an 
early warning of issues with service; or focus attention on areas where 
communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery 
of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, 
collaborative, and actionable communications between SSA and our 
customers and stakeholders.
    The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: timeliness; 
appropriateness; accuracy of information; courtesy; efficiency of 
service delivery; and resolution of issues with service delivery. We 
will assess responses to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain 
the quality of service offered to the public. If we do not collect this 
information, we would not have access to vital feedback from customers 
and stakeholders on SSA's services.
    We will only submit a collection for approval under this generic 
clearance if it meets the following conditions: (1) the collections are 
voluntary; (2) the collections are low-burden for respondents (based on 
considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or 
burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents 
and the Federal Government; (3) the collections are non-controversial 
and do not raise issues of concern to other Federal agencies; (4) the 
collections elicit opinions from respondents who previously had 
experience with Social Security programs or services, or are likely to 
do so in the near future; (5) we collect personally identifiable 
information (PII) only to the extent necessary and we do not retain it; 
(6) we will use information gathered only internally for general 
service improvement and program management purposes and we will not 
release it outside of the agency; (7) we will not use information we 
gather for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy 
decisions; and (8) information we gather will yield qualitative 
information; the collections will not be designed or expected to yield 
statistically reliable results or used as though the results are 
generalizable to the population of study.
    Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful 
information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the 
overall population. This type of generic clearance for qualitative 
information will not be used for quantitative information collections 
that are designed to yield reliably actionable results, such as 
monitoring trends over time or documenting program performance. Such 
data uses require more rigorous designs that address the target 
population to which generalizations will be made. Depending on the 
study design and the type of results being elicited, such collections 
may still be eligible for submission for other generic mechanisms that 
are designed to yield quantitative results.
    As a general matter, information collections will not result in any 
new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask 
questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, 
religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered 
private.
    The respondents are recipients of SSA services (including most 
members of the public), professionals, and individuals who work on 
behalf of SSA beneficiaries.
    Type of Request: Extension of an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Affected Public: Individuals and households, businesses and 
organizations, State, Local or Tribal government.
    Total Estimated Number of Respondents: 5,454,212.
    Below we provide projected average estimates for the next three 
years:
    Annual Respondents: 1,818,404.
    Annual Responses: 1,818,404.
    Frequency of Response: Once per request.
    Average minutes per Response: 13 minutes (12.6912).
    Estimated Annual Burden: 384,629 hours.
    II. 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 August 9, 2023. Individuals can obtain copies of this OMB 
clearance package

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by writing to [email protected].
    Generic Clearance for the Collection of Improving Customer 
Experience (OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation)--0960-0818. 
A modern, streamlined and responsive customer experience means: raising 
government-wide customer experience to the average of the private 
sector service industry; developing indicators for high-impact Federal 
programs to monitor progress towards excellent customer experience and 
mature digital services; and providing the structure (including 
increasing transparency) and resources to ensure customer experience is 
a focal point for agency leadership. This proposed information 
collection activity provides a means to garner customer and stakeholder 
feedback in an efficient, timely manner in accordance with the 
Administration's commitment to improving customer service delivery as 
discussed in section 280 of OMB Circular A-11 at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/s280.pdf. As discussed in 
OMB guidance, agencies should identify their highest-impact customer 
journeys (using customer volume, annual program cost, and/or knowledge 
of customer priority as weighting factors) and select touchpoints/
transactions within those journeys to collect feedback.
    These results will be used to improve the delivery of Federal 
services and programs. It will also provide government-wide data on 
customer experience that can be displayed on www.performance.gov to 
help build transparency and accountability of Federal programs to the 
customers they serve.
    As a general matter, these information collections will not result 
in any new system of records containing privacy information and will 
not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and 
attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly 
considered private.
    SSA will only submit collections if they meet the following 
criteria.
     The collections are voluntary;
     The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on 
considerations of total burden hours or burden-hours per respondent) 
and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government;
     The collections are non-controversial and do not raise 
issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
     The collections elicit opinions from respondents who had 
experience with Social Security programs or may have experience with 
the programs or services, or expect to do so in the near future;
     Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected 
only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
     Information gathered is intended to be used for general 
service improvement and program management purposes; and
     Upon agreement between OMB and the agency all or a subset 
of information may be released as part of A-11, Section 280 
requirements only on performance.gov. Summaries of customer research 
and user testing activities may be included in public-facing customer 
journey maps.
     Additional release of data must be done coordinated with 
OMB.
    These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and 
actionable communications between the Agency, its customers and 
stakeholders, and OMB as it monitors agency compliance on section 280. 
These responses will inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality 
of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, 
vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on services will be 
unavailable.
    The respondents are individuals and households, businesses and 
organizations, State, local or Tribal government.
    Type of Request: Extension of an OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Affected Public: Individuals and households, businesses and 
organizations, State, local or Tribal government.
    Total Estimated Number of Respondents: 17,866,680.
    Below we provide projected average estimates for the next three 
years:
    Annual Respondents: 5,955,560.
    Annual Responses: 1,142,475.
    Frequency of Response: Once per request.
    Average minutes per Response: 12 minutes (11.51).
    Estimated Annual Burden: 384,629 hours.

    Dated: July 3, 2023.
Faye Lipsky,
Staff Director, Office of Regulations and Reports Clearance, Office of 
Legislation and Congressional Affairs, Social Security Administration.
[FR Doc. 2023-14447 Filed 7-7-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P