Supporting Statement - 0828 (Final)

Supporting Statement for the Enterprise Scheduling System (ESS) and the National Appointment and Scheduling Calendar (NASC)

OMB No. 0960-0828

1. Justification

1. Introduction/Authoring Laws and Regulations

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) existing scheduling process is split across multiple systems. Currently members of the public (i.e., customers) use the Enterprise Scheduling System (ESS) for enumeration appointments; the Internet Appointment (iAppointment, OMB No. 0960-0822) tool for initial benefit claims appointments via the iClaim application; and the Enhanced Leads and Appointments System (eLAS, OMB No. 0960-0822) to request a technician‑assisted method to record and set initial claim (IC) appointments. Technicians can also use local solutions such as Excel spreadsheets, Outlook calendars, and shared repositories. The ESS provides a better customer and employee experience, which allows for both customer self-scheduling and technician‑assisted scheduling.

The first ESS release specifically allowed self-scheduling for enumeration services. However, we are now extending its current functionality, enabling customers and technicians to: schedule, reschedule, or cancel enumeration appointments for new or replacement Social Security cards; and complete Post‑Entitlement (PE) actions, such as changing a Representative Payee, processing non-receipt of payment, updating an SSI record, or submitting evidence. In addition, we are including the National Appointment and Scheduling Calendar (NASC) specifically for IC appointment scheduling. ESS will allow technicians the ability to schedule, reschedule or cancel PE appointments, and NASC will allow technicians the ability to schedule, reschedule, or cancel IC appointments on behalf of customers. We expect to continue to expand our scheduling capabilities moving forward, and eventually we will use NASC to incorporate all scheduling systems (see Addendum for more details).

2. Description of Collection

Customers use ESS to schedule an appointment to obtain a new SSN or a replacement Social Security card or for assistance with a PE action, and NASC to schedule a technician-assisted IC appointment. ESS and NASC offer customers the following services:

• Appointment scheduling

• Electronic communication

• Workload evaluation/planning/management

• Research

• Regulatory Mandated/Compliance

• General purpose statistics

As mentioned above, ESS and NASC facilitate both customer self-scheduling and technician scheduling, allowing SSA to collect essential information from customers, including their name, Social Security number, zip code, telephone number, and email address. Additionally, customers have the option to consent to electronic messaging or to opt out, as well as specify their preferred method of communication (email or text), language preference, preferred service office, and appointment day and time preferences. SSA uses this information to schedule in‑office, phone, or video appointments for processing enumeration, PE actions, or IC requests. Customers scheduling their PE or IC appointments through a technician have the option to create a one-time passcode, enabling them to securely update their appointment online. The technician documents this one‑time passcode along with the customer's other appointment preferences.

Customers begin the process by accessing SSA.gov and engaging an online questionnaire to determine the nature of their business. If applications are available for customers to self-serve, the system routes them to those applications to complete their business. If not, customers are given the option to self‑schedule an appointment through ESS. If the customer moves forward, the system directs them to log in using Login.gov or ID.me, or create a credential using Login.gov or ID.me. Once they complete credentialing, customers access ESS to complete required screens and fields to select a date and time for an appointment with an SSA field office (FO) to provide the proofs necessary to obtain a replacement or original SSN card or complete a PE action. Upon completing the required screens and fields, the system presents customers with a screen to review and submit all of the data they input regarding the requested appointment. If the customer enters everything accurately, the system allows the customer to confirm their information and schedules their appointment.

If customers encounter issues with ESS, or they need to request an appointment type which requires technician assistance (e.g., scheduling, rescheduling, or cancelling PE or IC appointments), they may contact SSA by phone to have an FO or Telephone Service Center (TSC) technician schedule their appointment. Technicians follow existing processes and policies to identify the caller as a legitimate customer, and converse with the customer to determine the nature of their business and if they require an appointment. If the technician determines the customer needs an appointment, the technician accesses ESS to complete the required screens and fields for the enumeration or PE appointment, or NASC to complete required screens for an IC appointment. Once the technician completes the ESS or NASC screens, the technician can review all of the information the customer provided with the customer. If the customer indicates it is correct the technician submits and schedules the appointment.

We conduct this information collection each time a customer accesses the online tool or contacts SSA by phone to schedule an appointment. ESS and NASC are integrated with SSA’s VIPr Mobile check-in functions, so ESS and NASC customers have the option to check in for their appointment using Mobile check‑in on their personal device, instead of checking in at a field office kiosk. In addition, SSA employees can summon walk-in visitors and individuals with ESS- or NASC-scheduled appointments using VIPr.

We identified the following psychological costs based on the requirements for this information collection:

• Psychological Costs:

• Psychological Cost #1:

  • Requirement for the Program: Respondents may become discouraged that they need to create a Login.gov or ID.me credential before they can access ESS or NASC.

• Psychological Cost: The respondent may feel this extra step shows the agency’s distrust, which may cause them to either call in to speak with an SSA technician, or they may abandon the process altogether.

• Psychological Cost #2:

  • Requirement for the Program: Respondents may become discouraged if they encounter issues with ESS and need to call a technician.

• Psychological Cost: The respondent may feel that the call is too tedious or bothersome, or they may be uncomfortable over the phone, causing them to discontinue the process without creating an appointment.

We understand these psychological costs may cause respondents to delay their scheduling of an appointment or cause them to abandon the appointment entirely. However, we require full completion of this collection to schedule an appointment at a field office. Therefore, we have taken this potential psychological cost into account when calculating our burden in #12 below. We also note that respondents who call in may request a callback number rather than waiting for a technician. In addition, the Login.gov and ID.me authentications are similar to other online credentialing processes, which should be familiar with respondents who normally do business online.

The respondents are individuals looking to schedule their own SSA visit either through self-scheduling or technician assisted modalities using ESS and NASC.

3. Use of the Information Technology to Collect the Information

In accordance with the agency’s Government Paperwork Elimination Act plan, SSA created this Internet-based scheduling tool.  We estimate approximately 95% of customers who are able to self-schedule under this OMB number use the electronic version.  However, if customers need assistance completing ESS, or they need to schedule an IC appointment through NASC, they can call and schedule appointments via telephone with SSA frontline FO or TSC staff.  In addition, customers can set up subsequent appointments during in-office interviews if they need any follow-up in‑office appointments.  SSA FO or TSC employees enter the information directly into ESS or NASC.  Based on our current data, approximately 29% of all ESS respondents are able to use the self‑scheduling option, while 71% of all respondents use the technician-assisted option.  As we move forward with our future plans to expand self-scheduling options, we expect the number of customers who self-schedule to increase.

4. Why We Cannot Use Duplicate Information

The nature of the information we collect and the manner in which we collect it precludes duplication. As mentioned above, the information ESS and NASC collect is similar to other existing SSA applications such as iAppointment which also passes the information to the VIPr Contact Board. However, as we do not use iAppointment for enumeration or PE appointments, we do not have another collection instrument which obtains similar data.

5. Minimizing Burden on Small Respondents

This collection does not affect small businesses or other small entities.

6. Consequences of Not Collecting Information or Collecting It Less Frequently

If we did not use ESS, the public would have no way to self-schedule appointments to set up PE appointments or obtain Social Security cards, and if we did not use NASC, the public would not be able to schedule initial claims appointments via telephone, both of which allow SSA to manage appointments for some of the largest workloads for FOs efficiently and effectively. Because we collect this information on an as needed basis, we cannot collect it less frequently. There are no technical or legal obstacles to burden reduction.

7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances that would cause SSA to conduct this information collection in a manner inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Solicitation of Public Comment and Other Consultations with the Public

The 60-day advance Federal Register Notice published on May 21, 205, at 90 FR 21817, and we received no public comments.  The 30-day FRN published on July 21, 2025 at 90 FR 34327. If we receive any comments in response to this Notice, we will forward them to OMB.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents

SSA does not provide payments or gifts to respondents.

10. Assurances of Confidentiality

SSA protects and holds confidential the information it collects 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. Justification for Sensitive Questions

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

12. Estimates of Public Reporting Burden

Please see the burden chart below:

Modality of Completion	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Average Burden Per Response (minutes)	Estimated Total Annual Burden (hours)	Average Theoretical Hourly Cost Amount (dollars)*	Average Wait Time for Teleservice Centers (minutes) **	Total Annual Opportunity Cost (dollars) ***
ESS - Internet	3,000,000	1	5	250,000	$22.98*		$5,745,000***
ESS – Technician (PE Appointments)	150,000	1	3	7,500	$22.98*	102**	$6,033,250***
NASC – Technician (Initial Claim Appointments)	7,270,161	1	10	1,211,694	$22.98*	102**	$311,860,845***
Totals	10,420,161			1,469,194			$323,639,095***

* We based this figure by averaging both the average DI payments based on SSA's current FY 2025 data (https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/2024FactSheet.pdf), and the average U.S. worker’s hourly wages, as reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics data (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics).

** We based this figure by averaging the average FY 2025 wait times for field offices and teleservice centers, based on SSA’s current management information data.

*** This figure does not represent actual costs that SSA is imposing on recipients of Social Security payments to complete this application; rather, these are theoretical opportunity costs for the additional time respondents will spend to complete the application. There is no actual charge to respondents to complete the application.

Note: We do not have management information (MI) data showing the number of respondents who utilize the technician-assisted ESS and NASC in a field office rather than via telephone. However, we believe it is a small percentage. Therefore, we did not calculate a separate travel time burden for these respondents.

We based our burden estimates per our usability testing data.  Per our usability testing data, we believe that 5 minutes for self-scheduling, 3 minutes for ESS and 10 minutes for NASC technician-assisted scheduling accurately shows the average burden per response for reading the instructions, gathering the facts, and answering the questions.  Based on our usability testing data, and current MI data, the current burden information we provided is accurate.  The total burden for this collection instrument is 1,469,194 burden hours (reflecting SSA MI data), which results in an associated theoretical (not actual) opportunity cost financial burden of $323,639,095.  SSA does not charge respondents to complete our applications.

13. Annual Cost to the Respondents (Other)

This collection does not impose a known cost burden on the respondents.

14. Annual Cost to Federal Government

The annual cost to the Federal Government is approximately $10,499,000. This estimate accounts for costs from the following areas:

Description of Cost Factor	Methodology for Estimating Cost	Cost in Dollars*
Designing User Interfaces	Design Cost	$196,000
Distributing, Shipping, and Material Costs for the Form	Distribution + Shipping + Material Cost	$0*
SSA Employee (e.g., field office, 800 number, DDS staff) Information Collection and Processing Time	GS-9 employee x # of responses x processing time	$199,000
Full-Time Equivalent Costs	Out of pocket costs + Other expenses for providing this service	$0*
Systems Development, Updating, and Maintenance	GS-9 employee x man hours for development, updating, maintenance	$10,099,010
Quantifiable IT Costs	Any additional IT costs	$0*
User Experience Group (UXG) Testing		$4,990
Total		$10,499,000

* We have inserted a $0 amount for cost factors that do not apply to this collection.

SSA is unable to break down the costs to the Federal government further than we already have, as field office and TSC staff often help respondents with several tasks at a time, and the time it takes to do so can vary greatly per respondent.  As well, because so many employees have a hand in each aspect of our forms, we use an estimated average hourly wage, based on the wage of our average field office employee (GS-9) for these calculations.  However, we have calculated these costs as accurately as possible based on the information we collect for creating, updating, and maintaining these information collections.

15. Program Changes or Adjustments to the Information Collection Request

When we last obtained OMB approval for this information collection, the burden was 312,500; however, we are currently reporting a burden of 1,469,194. This reflects the additional respondents requesting technician-assisted appointment scheduling for initial claims (see Addendum).

Note: The total burden reflected in ROCIS is 14,083,467, while the burden cited in #12 of the Supporting Statement is 1,469,194. This discrepancy is because the ROCIS burden reflects the following component: teleservice center waiting time. In contrast, the chart in #12 of the Supporting Statement reflects actual burden.

16. Plans for Publication Information Collection Results

SSA will not publish the results of the information collection.

17. Displaying the OMB Approval Expiration Date

SSA is not requesting an exception to the requirement to display the OMB approval expiration date.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement

SSA is not requesting an exception to the certification requirements at 5 CFR 1320.9 and related provisions at 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

SSA does not use statistical methods for this information collection.