Addendum to Supporting Statement 0960-0049

Supporting Statement for Forms SSA-7161-OCR-SM and SSA-7162-OCR-SM

Report to United States Social Security Administration by Person

Receiving Benefits for a Child or for an Adult Unable to Handle Funds;

Report to United States Social Security Administration

OMB No. 0960-0049

Terms of Clearance

OMB notes SSA’s response to the previous terms of clearance that suggests that a written rather than electronic response must be required. Before submitting this collection again for review, SSA should reconsider this position in light of the various methods available to electronically verify identify. SSA will either make this form electronically available or provide a plan (including milestones) for when SSA intends to do so.

SSA Response to Terms of Clearance

The Foreign Enforcement Program (FEP) is one of the most important integrity measures SSA uses to verify the existence and identity of beneficiaries living outside the United States. SSA contacts beneficiaries or their representatives annually or biennially using two Foreign Enforcement Questionnaires (FEQs), the SSA-7161-OCR-SM and the SSA-7162-OCR-SM. Our mailing of these questionnaires and beneficiaries’ and/or their representatives’ receipt of these questionnaires through the mail, helps to ensure us that our beneficiaries in foreign countries are receiving SSA notices and other important information, and allows SSA to obtain assurance of free access to our beneficiaries, which is integral to the soundness of the program.

To allow beneficiaries to complete the FEQs electronically online would sacrifice our only method of keeping track of the physical presence of beneficiaries and would put the integrity of the foreign Social Security program at risk. We believe that a more routine and/or widened circulation of the forms would undermine our review process and would initiate potential fraud and abuse of the system.

SSA currently minimizes the burden on the public imposed by this information collection by identifying the audience, pre-addressing the outgoing and incoming mailers and offering check block responses on the forms. Further, the existing system for processing/scanning the foreign enforcement forms uses pre-printed OCR (optical character recognition) paper forms and cannot accommodate forms independently printed, or electronically submitted by beneficiaries.

Minor Revisions to the Collection Instrument

SSA is making the following revisions:

We are revising the PRA statement to reflect our current boilerplate language.  The current language, which dates back to the last reprint of the form, is now outdated.

SSA’s Office of the General Counsel is conducting a systematic review of SSA’s Privacy Act Statements on agency forms. As a result, SSA is updating the Privacy Act Statement of the form.