[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 113 (Thursday, June 12, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33721-33722]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-13671]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. chapter 35).
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: SSA Supplement on Retirement, Pensions, and Related Content.
OMB Control Number: None.
Form Number(s): SIPP-SSA(L1)2014.
Type of Request: New collection.
Number of Respondents: 73,500.
Average Hours per Response: 30 minutes.
Burden Hours: 36,750.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct the SSA Supplement
on Retirement, Pensions, and Related Content (SSA Supplement) for the
Social Security Administration (SSA). The Census Bureau and the SSA
entered into an Interagency Agreement (IAA) in May 2010 that states the
Census Bureau will conduct for the SSA a survey to collect data on
retirement, pensions, marital history, and disabilities as a supplement
to the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Panel,
and process the data. That original agreement was renewed each year by
IAA modifications from 2011 to 2014.
The data topics included in the SSA Supplement were previously
collected in topical modules in the former SIPP Panels. These data were
excluded from the 2014 SIPP data collection design as they were not
required in each wave of data collection, and their elimination from
the core interview reduced recurring respondent burden during the
revised annual SIPP interview. To continue to have data for
incorporation into their programmatic evaluations, the SSA has
requested that the Census Bureau conduct the SSA Supplement beginning
in September 2014. SSA specifically requested that the interview
follow-up interviewed Wave 1 SIPP respondents, necessitating it's
fielding after the completion of the 2014 SIPP Wave 1 interview. This
differs from the topical module concept in previous SIPP panels where
the topical modules were administered in conjunction with the core SIPP
interview. The SSA Supplement will be conducted about 4 months
following the completion of the 2014 SIPP Panel Wave 1 data collection.
The time from the 2014 SIPP Wave 1 interview to the SSA Supplement
interview may be as long as 8 months or as short as 4 months. The SSA
Supplement is designed to occur only once during the 2014 SIPP Panel.
The main objective of the SSA Supplement is to provide the SSA with
detailed information about personal retirement plans (e.g., Individual
Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Keogh accounts, 401k, 403b, 503b, and
thrift plans); participation in pension and retirement plans provided
by an employer or business; current and previous marital status; self-
designation of health status; work disability; and adult and child
disability. These data are collected from SIPP interviewed Wave 1
respondents, and along with data collected in the 2014 Panel SIPP
interviews, will allow the SSA to create a picture of the economic and
social situation of people with disabilities and/or those in or
approaching retirement. The SSA also needs to estimate those legally
eligible for Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) divorce
benefits, that is, 120 months of marriage before divorce to an entitled
worker. This information assists the SSA in making informed decisions
about policies and programs that will affect older and/or disabled
Americans.
The SSA bases two of its major policy micro-simulations on the
SIPP: (1) Modeling Income in the Near Term (MINT) for evaluating Social
Security reform; and, (2) the Financial Eligibility Model (FEM) for
evaluating Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Qualified Medicare
Beneficiary, and Medicare Part-D Low Income Subsidy (LIS) programs.
MINT projects the economic and demographic condition of older
Americans based on data developed by SSA and the Census Bureau. MINT is
continually updated using data from current SIPP panels. SSA uses MINT
to simulate the impact of legislative changes to OASDI. The MINT
estimates are relied upon by the Office of Management and Budget, the
Council of Economic Advisors, the Congress, the Governmental
Accountability Office, and the SSA. MINT is also used to estimate
economic well-being indicators of older Americans in future years. Of
specific importance to the SSA is the impact of the legislative changes
on the economic well-being of future beneficiaries. The SSA also
assesses people's ability to save for retirement (including the
behavior of people putting money into and taking money out of
retirement accounts), marital histories of the population, and
eligibility for OASDI survivor and retirement benefits.
The FEM assists policy makers in evaluating the effectiveness of
the SSI program. Information from SIPP is matched to SSA administrative
data to model SSI eligibility and participation and to study
eligibility for Medicare buy-in programs and the LIS under Medicare
Part-D. Information on disability and work limitations are used to
estimate whether an individual meets the disability criteria for SSI
eligibility and if the criteria need to be modified.
Since the 1996 SIPP panel, the SSA has used data collected by the
SIPP for policy evaluation research and the modification of government
programs. Prior to the 2014 SIPP redesign, the data came from core
questions asked each Wave and from intermittent topical supplements. As
part of an effort to streamline the annual data collection in the SIPP
instrument, the redesigned SIPP does not include some topical data
previously used by the SSA for the MINT and FEM models.
[[Page 33722]]
The data collected in the Supplement will allow the SSA to do a
comparative analysis of the effect of the economic downturn and make
adjustments to their MINT and FEM models if substantial differences in
the data are identified. The SSA cannot obtain these data from any
other source.
The SSA Supplement is the first externally sponsored survey to take
advantage of the opportunity to integrate with the new SIPP annual
interviewing design. The value of integrating the SSA Supplement
content with the longitudinal SIPP data collection is a benefit to both
programs. The SSA Supplement data will be matchable to SIPP respondents
and will be released as public use data. The details about the
population's savings behavior and their disability status coupled with
four-year longitudinal data for the population will be an important
resource extending the utility of both data collections and will
support stakeholders beyond the limits of the partner agencies. The
power of the new SIPP program to support interagency projects like this
is an important feature in the SIPP program's redesign.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Frequency: One time.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: The SSA Supplement is authorized by Title 13,
United States Code, Section 8(b) and by Section 1110 [42 U.S.C.
1310] (a)(1) of the Social Security Act.
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce
collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.
Dated: June 6, 2014.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-13671 Filed 6-11-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P