Practitioner Focus Group 2014

Request for Approval under the

“Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

OMB Control Number: 1212-0066 (expires 08/31/2017)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Practitioner Focus Groups.

PURPOSE: To learn about Practitioners’ experience with PBGC. Responses obtained will guide PBGC’s efforts to improve practitioners’ experiences and satisfaction with PBGC.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Pension practitioners (e.g., plan sponsors, administrators and actuaries.

TYPE OF COLLECTIONS:

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[x] Focus Group [x] Other: short screening survey

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: Catherine B. Klion

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [x] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [x] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Private sector individuals	36	90 minutes	54 hours
Totals	36	90 minutes	54 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $2,200

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ ] Yes [x] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them.

PBGC will use the 2,990 individuals who opened the “What’s New” email notice of October 8, 2014 (Premium Payments to PBGC) as its potential group of respondents. The notice was sent to all individuals who have signed up on PBGC’s “What’s New” listserv, http://www.pbgc.gov/prac/whatsnew.html . From the universe of potential respondents, PBGC will randomly select 360 individuals who will be invited to participate.

An individual who is invited to participate will be asked to respond to two screening questions, both of which relate to the respondent’s ability to participate:

• The individual’s access to equipment that meets certain technical requirements.

• The individual’s availability to participate in one of three scheduled focus groups.

The individual will also be asked a few questions that relate to the individual’s diversity of experience with PBGC and to consent to the recording of the online session. The individual will be advised that the recording will be for service improvement purposes only, and that responses will be treated with the confidentiality provided by the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

From the invited individuals who meet both screening tests and consent to the recording of the online session, PBGC will select 36 respondents to participate in one of the three focus groups (12 per group). In selecting the 36, PBGC will select respondents who vary in the nature of their experiences with PBGC in order to obtain a good cross-section of respondents.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[x] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [x] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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