Justification for Revisions to 0960-0565

Justification for Revisions to the SSA-131

Employer Report of Special Wage Payments

20 CFR 404.428-404.429

OMB No. 0960-0565

Revisions to the Burden Information:

Based on current data, we are updating the number of respondents from 30,000 to 105,000. In reviewing the burden information for this collection, SSA determined that the number of respondents was underestimated in prior clearance packages. Therefore, we are revising the burden data to more accurately reflect current data.

The new burden information is as follows:

Approximately 105,000 respondents will use the SSA-131. The estimated average response time is 20 minutes, for a total of 35,000 burden hours. Question 6 will be answered by approximately 1% of the total respondents, which is no more than 1,050 respondents. The estimated average response time for question 6 is 2 minutes, for a total of 35 burden hours. The total burden is 35,035 hours. No separate cost burden has been calculated.

Revisions to the Collection Instrument:

• To facilitate the scanning of the SSA-131 for processing, minor formatting changes were made:

• We are replacing the blank lines and spaces where we currently collect information with scannable boxes.

• We are reducing the size of the boxes currently in question #4 in order to accommodate the new scannable boxes we are adding in #5.

• We are adding scannable bar codes to allow the scanners to better place the information in the computer system.

• We are including a mock-up of the cover letter which is sent along with the SSA-131. Previously we have not included the cover letter in the clearance package as it is merely informative and does not request information from the public. However, since the SSA-131 is never sent without a cover letter, we are including it now.

Upon approval, the revised SSA-131 will be reformatted by SSA’s Forms Management Team in order to standardize it and make the formatting consistent with all of our other scannable public use forms.