Proposed Information Collection Activity: Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

Proposed Information Collection Activity: Comment Request

Proposed Projects

Title: National Directory of New Hires.

OMB No.: New Request.

Description: Public Law 104-193, the ``Personal Responsibility and

Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996,'' requires the Office of

Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) to develop a National Directory of New

Hires (NDNH) to improve the ability of State child support agencies to

locate noncustodial parent and collect child support across State

lines.

This notice solicits comments under normal reports clearance

procedures and supersedes a previous Federal

[[Page 40093]]

Register notice, published July 18, 1997, soliciting comments under

emergency procedures of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Therefore,

the reports clearance request submitted to OMB under emergency

procedures of the PRA has been withdrawn. This action was taken to

provide the normal 60-day public comment period considering the

national significance of these data collections.

The NDNH will contain employment, wage and unemployment

compensation data on all employers within the United States. Public Law

104-193 requires States and territories to periodically transmit new

hire data received from employers to the NDNH, and to transmit wage and

unemployment compensation claims data to the NDNH on a quarterly basis.

Employers must report specified information (based on the IRS W-4

Form) on all new hires to State agencies for transmittal to the NDNH.

States will transmit all data to the NDNH electronically. The purpose

of the NDNH is to develop a repository of information on newly-hired

employees, and on the earnings and unemployment compensation claims

data on all employees, to provide the necessary information to locate

child support obligors, and to establish and enforce child support

orders.

As planned, the approximately 6.3 million United States' employers

will submit approximately 60 million new hire records to the State

Directory of New Hires (SDNH). If reports are submitted manually,

employers must submit new hire reports not later than 20 days after the

date the employer hires the employee. If employers submit new hire

reports electronically, reports must be submitted to the SDNH twice a

month and not less than 12 days nor more than 16 days apart. The State

shall have the option to set a civil money penalty for noncomplying

employers.

The information will be entered into the data base maintained by

the SDNH within five business days of receipt from an employer. Within

three business days after the date information regarding a newly hired

employee is entered into the SDNH, the information shall be furnished

to the NDNH.

State agencies charged with the administration of the unemployment

compensation program must submit to the NDNH approximately 140 million

records quarterly. These State records contain the wages and

unemployment compensation paid to individuals within the fifty States,

Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Provided below are the proposed Record Layouts and Field

descriptions along with the Supplemental Specifications. The

supplemental specifications contain additional explanation regarding

format and content of items in the record specifications. The record

Layouts and Field descriptions apply to the W-4, Quarterly Wage and

Unemployment Compensation records respectively. Descriptions are also

provided for header, data and trailer subrecords.

Respondents: States and Employers.

Annual Burden Estimates

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of

Instrument Number of responses per Average burden hours per response Total burden

respondents respondent hours

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Hire: Employers Not Currently Required to \1\ 3,372,250 \2\ 3.484 .0417 hours (2.5 minutes)................................ 489,930

Report (manual reporting) \1\.

New Hire: Employers Not Currently Required to \1\740,250 \2\ 37,037 .00028 hours (1 second) \3\.............................. 7,677

Report (electronically) \1\.

New Hire: Multistate Employers' Registration 375,000 1 .050..................................................... 18,750

Form.

New Hire: States Not Currently Requiring New 29 \4\ 83,333 \5\ 266,668.............................................. 644,445

Hire Reporting.

New Hire: States Currently Requiring New Hire 25 \4\ 83.333 \6\ 70.741............................................... 147,376

Reporting.

Quarterly Wage and Unemployment Compensation. 54 \7\ 4 .033..................................................... 7.13

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 1,308,185

Footnotes

The above Burden Estimates are based on the Following

Assumptions and Factors:

Twenty-five States already had a new hire reporting system in

place before PRWORA was passed. Within those 25 States, on average,

it is estimated that 75% of employers already report new hire data

(based on the fact that some States require all employers to report,

some require only targeted industries to report, and some are

voluntary reporting programs). It is estimated that these employers

represent the same proportional number of new hire reports (75% of

25/54).

These estimates include the 25% remaining employers who do not

report within those 25 States, in addition to all of the employers

within the remaining 29 States.

\1\ Eighteen percent of all employers will report manually and

82% will report electronically (based on SSA's experience). The

number of employers is based on the following calculation: the total

number of employers (6,300,000) multiplied by 29/54 (the proportion

of States that do not have new hire programs) plus the total number

of employers multiplied by the number of employers not already

reporting in the States that do have new hire programs (25% of 25/

54). The result (4,122,500) is then broken down into two categories:

those who report manually and those who report electronically.

\2\ For the ``Employers'' tiers, ``response'' is defined as the

number of new hire reports. Thirty percent of all new hire reports

will be reported manually and 70% will be reported electronically

(based on SSA's experience).

\3\ Based on the assumption that employers reporting new hires

electronically will most likely transmit their reports in a batch

file, thus significantly reducing the per-response burden.

\4\ For the ``States'' tiers, ``response'' is defined as the

number of transmissions to the NDNH. All States are required by law

to transmit new hire data to the NDNH electronically, within three

business days after entering the data into the SDNH. There are 250

business days per year. States will send a transmission once every

three business days, which is equal to 83.333 transmissions per

year.

\5\ Based on the average number of reports per transmission and

the average burden per new hire report. The average number of

reports per transmission is calculated by dividing 32,222,220 (total

number of new hire reports in those 29 States) by 29 (number of

States). The result (1,111,111) is then divided by 83.333 (estimated

number of transmissions per State, see above explanation). Based on

this calculation, the average number of reports per transmission is

13,333.39 reports. The average burden per new hire report is

estimated to be .02 hours (1.2 minutes), which is based on a range

of two seconds to four minutes. The burden is estimated to be two

seconds per report for the 70% of new hire reports submitted to the

State electronically. This two second burden estimate is based on

the same batch-file

[[Page 40094]]

assumption as above, and includes data receipt and data

transmission. If the State has to manually enter the new hire data

before transmitting to the NDNH (which is the case for 30% of all

new hire reports), the burden is estimated to be four minutes (based

on the number of characters in a record). The average burden hours

per report (.02) multiplied by the average number of reports per

transmission (13,333.39) is equal to the average burden hours per

transmission (266.668).

\6\ Within the 25 States that already have a new hire reporting

program in place, the burden is broken down into three categories.

The total number of new hire reports for those 25 States is 27.8

million (46% of 60 million, or 25/54 times 60 million). Seventy-five

percent of employers already submit to those States, so the

incremental burden for that group is only the transmission to the

NDNH (1 second per report). Twenty-five percent of employers do not

already submit to those States, so the burden for that group is

based on the same calculation as above: 30% of all new hire reports

are reported manually (@ 4 minutes each) and 70% are reported

electronically (@ 2 seconds each). The following table represents

the exact formula for the calculation:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of new

Types of reports hire reports Time per new hire report Total time

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Already Received From Employers (75%)... 20,833,333 .000278 hours (1 second)............................ 5787.0370 hours.

Reports Not Currently Received (25%)-- 2,083,333 .066667 hours (4 minutes)........................... 138888.8889 hours.

Manual (30%).

Reports Not Currently Received (25%)-- 4,861,111 .000556 hours (2 seconds)........................... 2700.6173 hours.

Electronic (70%).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total time for all three types of reports: 147,376.543 hours.

Total time per transmission (83.333) per State (25): 70.741

hours.

\7\ ``Response'' is defined here as the number of transmissions

to the NDNH. States are required to transmit quarterly wage and

unemployment compensation data four times a year.

Detailed Input Information

Record Layouts And Field Descriptions for Input to the National Directory of New Hire (NDNH)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location/ Alpha/ Description/

Field name position Length numeric remarks Mandatory/ optional

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W4 Transmitter Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A/N `H4'............... M.

Transmitter State Code.......... 3-4 2 N State FIPS code M for states.

(for states only).

Transmitter Agency Code......... 5-13 9 A/N Federal Agency Code M for agencies.

(for federal

agencies only).

Transmission Type............... 14-15 2 A/N `W4' for W4 data... M.

Department of Defense Code...... 16 1 A `A' for active M for DOD.

duty, `C' for

civilian, `R' for

reserves. States

may leave this

field blank.

Version Control Number.......... 17-18 2 A/N Must be `01', M.

controlled by OCSE.

Date Stamp...................... 19-26 8 N Format--YYYYMMDD. M.

Must be current

system date of

file generation..

Batch Number.................... 27-32 6 N Sequential number M.

to identify a

submission as

unique.

Filler.......................... 33-801 769 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W4 Total Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A/N `T4'............... M.

Data Record Count............... 3-13 11 N Total record count M.

for transmission,

including header

and trailer

records.

Filler.......................... 14-801 787 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W4 Data Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A/N `W4'............... M.

Employee SSN.................... 3-11 9 N As reported by M.

employee.

Employee Name:

First Name.................. 12-27 16 A At least one M.

character. No

special

characters..

Middle Name................. 28-43 16 A If non-blank, must O.

be at least one

character. No

special

characters..

Last Name................... 44-73 30 A At least one M.

character. No

special

characters, except

for hyphen..

Employee Address:

Street Address (line 1)..... 74-113 40 A/N Non-blank.......... M.

Street Address (line 2)..... 114-153 40 A/N If your address O.

line is less than

40 characters do

not concatenate

into one line.

Street Address (line 3)..... 154-193 40 A/N ................. O.

City........................ 194-218 25 A At least two M.

characters. No

special

characters, except

for hyphen..

State....................... 219-220 2 A Valid state or M.

territory

abbreviation.

Zip Code (1)................ 221-225 5 N Must be numeric.... M.

Zip Code (2)................ 226-229 4 A/N If present, must be O.

numeric.

Employee Foreign Address:

[[Page 40095]]

Foreign Country Code........ 230-231 2 A/N Refer to U.S. M for foreign address.

Department of

Commerce FIPS code

manual, National

Institute of

Standards and

Technology, FIPS

PUB 10-4 (April

1995).

Foreign Country Name........ 232-256 25 A/N If present, at O.

least two

characters.

Foreign Zip Code............ 257-271 15 A/N ................. O.

Employee Date of Birth.......... 272-279 8 A/N If present, O.

numeric. Format--

YYYYMMDD.

Employee Date of Hire........... 280-287 R A/N If present, O.

numeric. Format-

YYYYMMDD.

Employee State of Hire.......... 288-289 2 A Alphabetic state of O.

territory

abbreviation.

Federal EIN..................... 290-298 9 N Federal Employer M.

Identification

Number.

State EIN....................... 299-310 12 A/N If no FEIN is O.

available, send

the State EIN. If

present and less

than 12

characters, left

justify.

Employer Name................... 311-355 45 A/N At least two

characters..

Employee Address:

Street Address (line 1)..... 356-395 40 A/N FEIN address from M.

W4. At least two

characters.

Street Address (line 2)..... 396-435 40 A/N If your address O.

line is less than

40 characters, do

not concatenate

into one line.

Street line 3).............. 436-475 40 A/N ................... O.

City........................ 476-500 25 A At least two M.

characters.

State....................... 501-502 2 A Valid state of M.

territory

abbreviation.

Zip Code (1)................ 503-507 5 N Must be numeric.... M.

Zip Code (2)................ 508-511 4 A/N If present, must be O.

numeric.

Employer Foreign Address:

Foreign Country Code........ 512-513 2 A/N Refer to U.S. M for foreign address.

Department of

Commerce FIPS code

manual, National

Institute of

Standards and

Technology, FIPS

PUB 10-4 (April

1995).

Foreign Country Name........ 514-538 25 A/N If present, at O.

least two

characters.

Foreign Zip Code............ 539-553 15 A/N ................... O.

Employer Optional Address....... ......... ....... ............ This address will O.

be blank if only

collecting one

address. If there

is a second

address, it should

be the address

where child

support orders

should be sent.

Street Address (line 1)..... 554-593 40 A/N If your address O.

line is less than

40 characters, do

not concatenate

into one line.

Street Address (line 2)..... 594-633 40 A/N ................... O.

Street Address (line 3)..... 634-673 40 A/N ................... O.

City........................ 674-698 25 A If present, at O.

least two

characters.

State....................... 699-700 2 A If present, valid O.

state of territory

abbreiation.

Zip Code (1)................ 701-705 5 A/N If present, must be O.

numeric.

Zip Code (2)................ 706-709 4 A/N If present, must be O.

numeric.

Employer Optional:

Foreign Address:

Foreign Country Code........ 710-711 2 A/N Refer to U.S. O.

Department of

Commerce FIPS code

manual, National

Institute of

Standards and

Technology, FIPS

PUB 10-4 (April

1995).

Foreign Country Name........ 712-736 25 A/N If present, at O.

least two

characters.

Foreign Zip Code............ 737-751 15 A/N ................... O.

Filler.......................... 752-801 50 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quarterly Wage Transmitter Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A `HQ'............... M.

Transmitter State Code.......... 3-4 2 N State FIPS code M for states.

(for states only).

Transmitter Agency Code......... 5-13 9 A/N Federal Agency Code M for agencies.

(for federal

agencies only).

Transmission Type............... 14-15 2 A/N `QW' for quarterly M.

wage data.

Department of Defense Code...... 16 1 A `A' for active M for DOD.

duty, `C' for

civilian, `R' for

reserves. States

may leave this

field blank.

Version Control Number.......... 17-18 2 A/N Must be `01', M.

controlled by OCSE.

Date Stamp...................... 19-26 8 N Format--YYYYMMDD. M.

Must be current

system date of

file generation..

Batch Number.................... 27-32 6 N Sequential number M.

to identify a

submission as

unique.

Filler.......................... 33-601 569 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 40096]]

Quarterly Wage Total Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A `TQ'............... M.

Data Record Count............... 3-13 11 N Total record count M.

for transmission,

including header

and trailer record.

Filler.......................... 14-601 588 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quarterly Wage Data Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A `QW'............... M.

Employee SSN.................... 3-11 9 N As reported by M.

employee.

Employee Name:

First Name.................. 12-27 16 A At least one M.

character. No

special characters.

Middle Name................. 28-43 16 A If non-blank, must O.

be at least one

character. No

special characters.

Last Name................... 44-73 30 A At least one M.

character. No

special

characters, except

for hyphen.

Employee Wage Amount............ 74-84 11 N Last two positions M.

are decimal

places. No

negative values,

zeroes are

allowed. Gross

amount paid within

the quarter.

Reporting Period................ 85-89 5 N Format--QYYYY for M.

Calendar year. Q =

1 for Jan-Mar, Q =

2 for Apr-Jun, Q =

3 for Jul-Sep, Q =

4 for Oct-Dec..

Federal EIN..................... 90-98 9 N Federal Employer M.

Identification.

State EIN....................... 99-110 12 A/N If present and less O.

than 12

characters, left

justify.

Employer Name................... 111-155 45 A/N At least two M.

characters.

Employer Address:

Street Address (line 1)..... 156-195 40 A/N FEIN address. At M.

least two

characters.

Street Address (line 2)..... 196-235 40 A/N If your address O.

line is less than

40 characters, do

not concatenate

into one line.

Street Address (line 3)..... 236-275 40 A/N ................... O.

City........................ 276-300 25 A At least two M.

characters.

State....................... 301-302 2 A Valid state or M.

territory

abbreviation.

Zip Code (1)................ 303-307 5 N ................... M.

Zip Code (2)................ 308-311 4 A/N If present, must be O.

numeric.

Employer Foreign Address:

Foreign Country Code........ 312-313 2 A/N Refer to U.S. M for foreign address.

Department of

Commerce FIPS code

manual, National

Institute of

Standards and

Technology, FIPS

PUB 10-4 (April

1995).

Foreign Country Name........ 314-338 25 A/N If present, at 0.

least two

characters.

Foreign Zip Code............ 339-353 15 A/N ................... 0.

Employer Optional Address....... ......... ....... ............ This address will

be blank if only

collecting one

address. If there

is a second

address, it should

be the address

where child

support orders

should be sent.

Street Address (line 1)..... 354-393 40 A/N At least two 0.

characters.

Street Address (line 2)..... 394-433 40 A/N If your address is 0.

less than 40

characters, do not

concatenate into

one line.

Street Address (line 3)..... 434-473 40 A/N ................... 0.

City........................ 474-498 25 A If present, at 0.

least two

characters.

State....................... 499-500 2 A If present, valid 0.

state or territory

abbreviation.

Zip Code (1)................ 501-505 5 A/N If present, must be 0.

numeric.

Zip Code (2)................ 506-509 4 A/N If present, must be 0.

numeric.

Employer Optional Foreign

Address:

Foreign Country Code........ 510-511 2 A/N Refer to U.S. 0.

Department of

Commerce FIPS code

manual, National

Institute of

Standards and

Technology, FIPS

PUB 10-4 (April

1995).

Foreign Country Name........ 512-536 25 A/N If present, at 0.

least two

characters.

Foreign Zip Code............ 537-551 15 A/N ................... 0.

Filler.......................... 552-601 50 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UI Transmitter Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A `HU'............... M.

Transmitter State Code.......... 3-4 2 N State FIPS code M for states.

(for states only).

Transmitter Agency Code......... 5-13 9 A/N Federal Agency Code M for agencies.

(for federal

agencies only).

[[Page 40097]]

Transmission Type............... 14-15 2 A/N `UI' for M.

unemployment

insurance data.

Filler.......................... 16 1 A/N ................... M for DOD.

Version Control Number.......... 17-18 2 A/N Must be `01', M.

controlled by OCSE.

Date Stamp...................... 19-26 8 N Format--YYYYMMDD. M.

Must be current

system date of

file generation.

Batch Number.................... 27-32 6 N Sequential number M.

to identify a

submission as

unique.

Filler.......................... 32-295 263 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UI Total Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A `TU'............... M.

Data Record Count............... 3-13 11 N Total record count M.

for transmission,

including header

and trailer record.

Filler.......................... 14-295 282 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UI Data Record

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............... 1-2 2 A `UI'............... M.

Claimant SSN.................... 3-11 9 N As reported by M.

claimant.

Claimant Name:

First Name.................. 12-27 16 A At least one M.

character. No

special characters.

Middle Name................. 28-43 16 A If non-blank, must 0.

be at least one

character. No

special characters.

Last Name................... 44-73 30 A At least one M.

character. No

special

characters, except

for hyphen.

Claimant Address:

Street Address (line 1)..... 74-113 40 A/N Non-blank.......... M.

Street Address (line 2)..... 114-153 40 A/N If your address 0.

line is less than

40 characters, do

not concatenate

into one line.

Street Address (line 3)..... 154-193 40 A/N ................... 0.

City........................ 194-218 25 A At least two M.

characters. No

special

characters, except

for hyphen.

State....................... 219-220 2 A Valid state or M.

territory

abbreviation.

Zip Code (1)................ 221-225 5 N Must be numeric.... M.

Zip Code (2)................ 226-229 4 A/N If present, must be 0.

numeric.

Benefit Amount.................. 230-240 11 N Last two positions M.

are decimal

places. No

negative values,

zeroes are

allowed. Gross

amount paid within

the quarter before

withholding

offsets. This

amount is a total

of all benefits

that are tracked

electronically.

Reporting Period................ 241-245 5 N Format--QYYYY for M.

Calendar year. Q=1

for Jan-Mar, Q=2

for Apr-Jun, Q=3

for Jul-Sep, Q=4

for Oct-Dec.

Filler.......................... 246-295 50 A/N Spaces. To be used

for future

versions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supplement to New Hire Record Specifications

At the suggestion of the workgroup that assisted in developing the

record specifications for the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH),

this is an accompanying document that contains some additional

clarification or explanation of items in the record specifications.

Mandatory Fields: The legislation mandates the collection of only

the following six data elements from the W-4 form:

Employee SSN

Employee Name

Employee Address

Employer Name

Employer Address

Employer ID number

On the W-4 record specifications these fields are marked with (M)

to designate mandatory. There are three additional optional fields that

are highly desirable for the New Hire data base. These are:

Employee Date of Birth

Employee Date of Hire

Employee State of Hire

While the legislation precludes the federal government from

mandating the collection and retention of additional data elements, the

states are not bound by those rules. The New Hire record specifications

were developed in collaboration with State child support enforcement

staff, State Employment Security Agency (SESA) staff, and federal and

Department of Defense staff. Consequently, the specifications include

additional data elements that will be collected by the states and

passed to the NDNH. These data elements will be used by the states and

other authorized users of NDNH data.

Following are some clarifying statements that apply to all of the

NDNH data elements and record formats.

1. All data is to be in EBCDIC format.

2. All alphanumeric data are to be in upper case.

3. All alphanumeric data are to be left justified.

4. All numeric data are to be right justified and zero filled.

5. All dates are to be in the Year 2000-compliant format of

YYYYMMDD.

[[Page 40098]]

6. Name and city data are to be stripped of special characters

except for the hyphen.

7. State and territory abbreviations in addresses should be the

U.S. Postal Service abbreviations

8. Name fields should not include suffixes such as ``Jr.'',

``Sr.'', and ``III''.

9. The NDNH will contain two addresses for the employer. The first

address is that noted on the W-4 form. The second address is where

child support orders should be sent. If only one address is available

or known, use the first set of address data elements and leave the

second set of data elements blank.

10. National standard codes are to be used for foreign country code

abbreviations as assigned by the Department of Commerce FIPS codes

(FIPS PUB 10-4).

11. For Quarterly Wage data, the employee wage amount is to be the

gross amount paid during the quarter, regardless of when the amount was

earned.

12. For Unemployment Insurance data, the benefit amount is to be

the gross amount paid within the quarter before any deductions or

offsets are applied, regardless of when the benefit was earned or

accrued.

13. When in Doubt, Send the Data. While the NDNH wants to receive

clean, edited data, we want to receive all data in a timely manner.

Consequently, if some data is missing or incomplete at the time of

transmission include the record(s) in the transmission. Hopefully, this

will also make processing easier at the State level.

14. Output records returned from the NDNH will contain all of the

input data sent to the NDNH and indications of errors of changes that

took place at the federal level.

15. States have the option of receiving error records. The NDNH

will maintain a matrix of which states want to be notified of errors

and which do not.

Input Records

When sending data to the federal level, there will be three record

types in each transmission of data. These will include a header record,

a series of data records, and concluded by a trailer record.

Header Record

The header record will be the first record in the data set and will

contain the following fields.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Field name Comments

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............ Enter `H4' for W4 data.

Enter `HQ' for Quarterly Wage data.

Enter `HU' for Unemployment Insurance

data.

Transmitter State Code....... Refer to U.S. Department of Commerce FIPS

code manual, National Institute of

Standards and Technology, FIPS PUB 10-4

(April 1995).

Transmitter Agency Code...... Some federal agencies act as service

bureaus for other federal agencies.

Enter the Federal Employer

Identification Number (FEIN) of the

agency transmitting the data to the

National Directory of New Hires.

Transmission Type............ Identifies the type of data in this data

set.

Enter `W4' for W4 data.

Enter `QW' for Quarterly Wage data.

Enter `UI' for Unemployment Insurance

data.

Department of Defense Code... This field is mandatory only for DOD data

transmissions. All others can ignore

this field. DOD data is separated into

several categories. This field indicates

which category of data is being

transmitted.

Enter `A' for active duty personnel.

Enter `C' for civilian personnel.

Enter `R' for reservist personnel.

Version Control Number....... It is assumed that the system will be

modified over time to accommodate future

requirements. The version Control Number

indicates which version of the system is

in operation and will provide a means of

communicating with data suppliers about

record formats.

Enter `01' until notified by OCSE to

change this value.

Date Stamp................... Enter the system generated date on the

date the data set is transmitted to the

federal level. Enter the date in the

format YYYYMMDD.

Batch Number................. A sequential number generated by the

transmitting agency. This field is to

uniquely identify a transmission. Do not

repeat batch numbers.

Filler....................... Each record contains filler to be used

for future versions of the record

formats.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Record

Each data set is to be terminated with a Total Record which will

contain the count of the total number of records transmitted in this

data set.

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Field Name Comments

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............ Enter `T4' for W4 data.

Enter `TQ' for Quarterly Wage data.

Enter `TU' for Unemployment Insurance

data.

Data Record Count............ Enter the total number of records

transmitted in this data set, including

the header and trailer records. This

will be used to verify that all records

are received and processed.

Filler....................... Spaces. To be used for future versions of

the system.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Data Record

Each of the data records for W4, Quarterly Wage, and UI is

different in several ways. Following is further explanation of some of

the data elements in those record layouts. See the Record Layout

specifications for detailed information on all data elements.

[[Page 40099]]

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Filed Name Comments

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Identifier............ Enter `W4' for the W4 record.

Enter `QW' for the Quarterly Wage record.

Enter `UI' for the Unemployment Insurance

record.

Foreign Address Data Elements If an address supplied for the employee

or employer is outside the United

States, include the Foreign Country Code

for the address, the Foreign Country

Name, and the Foreign Zip Code.

Employee Wage Amount (QW).... For Quarterly Wage data, provide the

gross amount paid to the employee during

the quarter, regardless of when the

amount was earned.

Reporting Period............. Use the quarters that correspond to the

calendar year rather than quarters that

correspond to fiscal accounting periods.

Use the format QYYYY where

Q=1 for January-March.

Q=2 for April-June.

Q=3 for July-September.

Q=4 for October-December.

Benefit Amount (UI).......... The UI Benefit Amount is the gross amount

paid within the reporting quarter before

any withholding offsets are applied.

This amount should be the sum of

benefits received from all programs

tracked electronically by the State.

However, only include those benefits

that are housed in the same hardware

environment. Do not include benefits

from sources that must be translated or

imported to the mainframe environment.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Output Records

FPLS will return records to the data transmitters when errors were

detected. The states can elect to have these records returned for error

resolution or not as they choose. Federal agencies, however, will

receive all error records from each transmittal.

The record formats for the error records are identical to the input

record provided by the submitter except that error codes will be

appended that explain the nature of the error. Errors can occur at the

transmission level and at the individual record level.

Transmission Control Records

This is the output equivalent of the input TRANSMITTER RECORD and

includes counts of records received, records rejected, error records

returned, records posted to the National Directory of New Hires,

records posted to the Suspense File, and up to five Error Codes

pertaining to the transmission level error conditions encountered.

Data Records

Each output version of the input DATA RECORD had appended to it up

to five record level error codes that indicate the nature of the error

encountered during editing. It also contains a Social Security Number

Verification Indicator that indicates whether multiple valid SSNs were

encountered during the SSN verification process. In addition, a

corrected SSN is returned if during the SSN verification process the

supplied SSN was determined to be incorrect and the verification

procedure was able to provide the correct SSN.

Total Records

No transmission total records will be returned to the submitting

State or federal agency.

In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and

Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the

information collection described above.

The Department specifically requests comments on: (a) Whether the

proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper

performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the

information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the

agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of

information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarity of the information

to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection

of information on respondents, including through the use of automated

collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted

within 60 days of this publication.

Copies of the proposed collection of information can be obtained

and comments may be forwarded by writing to the Administration for

Children and Families, Office of Information Services, Division of

Information Resource Management Service, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance

Officer, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20447 or e-mail

to Internet address: [email protected]. All requests should be

identified by the title of the information collection.

Dated: July 18, 1997.

Robert Driscoll,

Reports Clearance Officer.

[FR Doc. 97-19494 Filed 7-24-97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4184-01-M