Supporting Statement--0116

Supporting Statement for Form SSA-2519
Child Relationship Statement

20 CFR 404.355 & 404.731
OMB No. 0960-0116

A. Justification

1. Section 216(h)(3) of the Social Security Act (the Act) provides the criteria necessary to entitle certain children to Social Security child's benefits. This section provides that an insured individual's son or daughter may be deemed his/her child if: (1) the insured individual is shown by evidence satisfactory to SSA to be the child's parent and was living with or contributing to the child's support at certain specified times; or (2) the insured individual acknowledged the child in writing or was decreed by a court to be the child's parent or was ordered to support the child. This authority is implemented by 20 CFR 404.355 and 404.731 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

2. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses the information collected on Form SSA‑2519 to determine whether children meet the entitlement requirements for Social Security benefits under the deemed child provisions of section 216(h)(3) of the Act. The consequence of not collecting the information would be possible preclusion of entitlement. Respondents are persons with knowledge of the relationship between the number holder and his/her alleged biological child who is filing for benefits.

3. The electronic submission of application/form data is an Agency goal as an alternative means of doing business with SSA, unless face to face contact with the individual is required as part of the intake process or the circumstances are so sensitive or complex that the completer would be better served interacting with a trained SSA employee. Electronic intake can only occur if there is functional equivalency on the backend to receive and process the electronic submission. This expenditure of Systems resources must compete with other priority initiatives for very limited funds. The SSA-2519 cannot compete with the legislative mandates that are driving the use of these funds and, therefore, this collection is currently not scheduled for electronic implementation.

4. The nature of the information being collected and the manner in which it is collected preclude duplication. There is no other collection instrument used by SSA that collects data similar to that collected here.

5. This collection does not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small businesses or other small entities.

6. This information collection is conducted in order to obtain data relevant to entitlement of a child under the deemed child provisions in section 216(h)(3) of the Act. The consequence of not collecting the information would mean possible preclusion of entitlement. Therefore, this form could not be used less frequently. There are no technical or legal obstacles that prevent burden reduction

7. There are no special circumstances that would cause this information collection to be conducted inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice was published on December 15, 2006 at 71 FR 75607, and SSA has received no public comments. The second Notice was published on February 14, 2007, at 72 FR 7107. There have been no outside consultations with members of the public.

9. SSA provides no payment or gifts to the respondents.

10. The information requested is protected and held confidential in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1306, 20 CFR 401 and 402, 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act of 1974) and OMB Circular No. A-130.

11. The information collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Form SSA-2519 will be used by approximately 50,000 respondents annually. The estimated average response time is 15 minutes, for a total of 12,500 burden hours. The total burden is reflected as burden hours, and no separate cost burden has been calculated.

13. There is no known cost burden to the respondents.

14. The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $77,000. This estimate is a projection of printing and distribution costs for the information collection.

15. There have been no program changes or adjustments in this form, and there is no change in the public reporting burden.

16. The results of the information collection will not be published.

17. OMB has granted SSA an exemption from the requirement that the expiration date for OMB approval be printed on its program forms. SSA produces millions of public-use forms, many of which have a life cycle longer than that of an OMB clearance. SSA does not periodically revise and reprint its public-use forms (e.g., on an annual basis). This exemption was granted so that otherwise useable editions of forms would not be taken out of circulation because the expiration date had been reached. In addition, government waste has been avoided because stocks of forms will not have to be destroyed and reprinted.

18. SSA is not requesting an exception to the certification requirements.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

Statistical methods for collection of this information are not used.

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