View Information Collection Request (ICR) Package

OMB Control No: 0960-0142	ICR Reference No: 202405-0960-001
Status: Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 202210-0960-006
Agency/Subagency: SSA	Agency Tracking No:
Title: Statement of Death by Funeral Director and State Death Match
Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved without change	Conclusion Date: 07/15/2024
	Date Received in OIRA: 05/09/2024
Terms of Clearance:

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	07/31/2027	36 Months From Approved	07/31/2024
Responses	171,320,454	0	128,021,190
Time Burden (Hours)	42,793,660	0	36,282
Cost Burden (Dollars)	473,347,121	0	257,449,861

Abstract: The death of a beneficiary is an event that terminates the individual’s entitlement to Social Security benefits. As regulated, states must furnish death information to SSA to compare to SSA’s payment files. SSA employs two modalities for ensuring it efficiently receives accurate information regarding the deaths of SSA-insured workers and beneficiaries: (1) Form SSA–721, Statement of Death by Funeral Director; and (2) the Electronic Death Registration (EDR). SSA operates the State Death Match collections, which includes the EDR process for electronically reporting death records to SSA. The states furnish death certificate information to SSA via a manual registration process (the SSA-721), or via the EDR Registration Process. Both death match processes are automated electronic transfers between the states and SSA. This collection, via paper form SSA-721 or the EDR, allows for the funeral director or funeral home responsible for the individual’s burial or cremation to report the death to SSA. SSA uses this information for three purposes: (1) to establish proof of death for the insured worker; (2) to determine if the insured individual was receiving any pre-death benefits SSA needs to terminate; and (3) to ascertain which surviving family member is eligible for the lump-sum death payment or for other death benefits. The respondents for this information collection are funeral directors who handled death arrangements for the insured individuals, and the states’ bureaus of vital statistics.

Authorizing Statute(s): US Code: 42 USC 402 Name of Law: Social Security Act
US Code: 42 USC 405(r) Name of Law: Social Security Act

Citations for New Statutory Requirements: None

Associated Rulemaking Information
RIN:	Stage of Rulemaking:	Federal Register Citation:	Date:
	Not associated with rulemaking

Federal Register Notices & Comments
60-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	89 FR 9887	02/12/2024
30-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	89 FR 30428	04/23/2024
Did the Agency receive public comments on this ICR? No

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Previously Approved	Change Due to Agency Discretion	Change Due to Adjustment in Estimate
Annual Number of Responses	171,320,454	128,021,190	-3,614,069	46,913,333
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	42,793,660	36,282	312	42,757,066
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	473,347,121	257,449,861	-3,180,381	219,077,641

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: Yes

Burden Increase Due to: Miscellaneous Actions

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement: When we last cleared this ICR in 2021, the burden for the SSA-721 was 36,282 hours. However, we are currently reporting a burden of 29,163 hours. This change stems from a decrease in the number of responses for the SSA-721 from 544,233 to 437,449. There is no change to the burden time per response. Although the number of responses changed, SSA did not take any actions to cause this change. These figures represent current Management Information data. When we last cleared this ICR in 2021, we reported a total of 123,549,888 responses annually. However, we are currently reporting 170,881,758 responses annually. This change stems from a minor increase in the number of respondents for EDR. Previously, we showed 5 states who expected to use EDR for submission, and now 4 of those states have registered to use EDR. We are still reporting one state who expects to use EDR within the next 3 years. In addition, we note that the states also submitted higher numbers of responses, likely due to the COVID pandemic. We expect the numbers to return to the lower figures within the next three years. While we have not seen any major programmatic changes to our EDR responses, we are making an adjustment to the cost burden to reflect current figures which has increased the cost to the respondents. Finally, we removed the Non-EDR manual process (two ICs) which does not use the SSA-721, as none of the states are using this process. The removal of these two ICs caused a burden decrease. * Note: The total hourly burden reflected in ROCIS is 42,793,660, while the burden cited in #12 of the Supporting Statement is 29,163. This discrepancy is because the ROCIS burden reflects the learning costs for both the SSA-721 and EDR (as shown in the chart for the Learning Costs in #12 above). In contrast, the chart in #12 of the Supporting Statement reflects actual burden.

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $58,973,045

Does this IC contain surveys, censuses, or employ statistical methods? No

Does this ICR request any personally identifiable information (see OMB Circular No. A-130 for an explanation of this term)? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. Yes

Does this ICR include a form that requires a Privacy Act Statement (see 5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(3))? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. Yes

Is this ICR related to the Affordable Care Act [Pub. L. 111-148 & 111-152]? No

Is this ICR related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, [Pub. L. 111-203]? No

Is this ICR related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)? No

Is this ICR related to the Pandemic Response? No

Agency Contact: Faye Lipsky 410 965-8783 faye.lipsky@ssa.gov

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