Pros and cons of becoming parent's payee representative for social security?

My husband is representative payee for his developmentally disabled brother.

He has to do an annual report and explain where all the money went. The SSA will send you the report to fill out when it is time.

My husband pays all his bills and keep receipts for all. In addition he tracks all the expenses with an Excel spreadsheet so the report is not to hard to complete. He has included a column in the spread sheet that coincides with the categories on the report. This enables his to consider the expense as housing, food, and one more category I can’t remember now but he is easily able to group the expenses to fill out the report.

Good luck.

Being your parent's social security payee is the only way SS will work with you and be allowed to speak to you, allow you to make financial instituion changes, and answer your questions.
I am my father's POA and then became his guardian when he was demmed no longer decisional. Becoming his social security payee was what I was first instructed to do by the court. The only way SS would speak to me was when I faxed them my letter of gaurdianship. There was a 2 page form for me to complete and mail back to them. Within 60 days, SS sent me a letter acknowleding I was his designated payee. I pay all of his bills from that account. I keep reciepts in a file as proof to what his monthly expenses consist of (rent for memory care, receipts for meds from his pharmacy, copies of his supplementsal insurance paid for, etc.).
In my opinion, it was a small bit of work to get started. Now it's not a lot of work to do the right thing and protect my Dad. Start with a phone call to your local SS office to request information on how to become becoming your parents SS payee. I wish you all the best.

Can't you have her payments just sent to her account like normal but have her add you to the bank account, credit card, utilities, etc.? That's what we did so I can talk to anyone, make any decisions or payments for them, work out issues etc.

Thereishelp: Per Google, "A representative payee, or substitute payee, accepts disability or Social Security income payments for someone who is not capable of managing their own benefits. The representative payee also assists the individual with money management and protects them from victimization or financial abuse, such as identity theft and other forms of fraud."

Disclaimer: The above is not my authoring.

Ergo, just more work for you to do IF you indeed do become representative payee.

Social Security does not recognize POA documents. Social Security will appoint you, if you qualify, to be the representative payee for your parent. When you are appointed to be the representative payee, SS will explain the entire process to you.

There’s nothing difficult about being a representative payee as long as you spend your parent’s SS money on his/her needs only and you keep ALL receipts of what you spent just in case SS needs proof of where the money went.

I can understand your concern about not wanting to use the address of the facility where your parent resides as mailing address. My suggestion would be to use your address as the mailing address. The residential address will be where your parent resides. Another suggestion, if you don’t want to use your address as your parent’s mailing address, is to have a PO Box for your parent.

Hope you find the solution that works best for you.

If you are POA, there might not be much of an advantage of becoming a representative payee--you already have the ability to manage your loved one's finances.

However, in my case, my sister had no POA set up. I had to go through the court to be named legal guardian. At that time, our attorney recommended that I also apply to be the Social Security representative payee and have that money deposited into its own account. When I asked why, since I would already be managing her other accounts (with permission from the court), our attorney informed me that as representative payee, I could use the social security funds as I wished for my sister's care, without any court oversight. For whatever reason, the court sets that money aside for the legal guardian to use with no permissions required.

Although becoming the representative payee was a hassle, requiring paperwork and about a couple hours' worth of phone calls, it was less hassle than it could have been--because it was still in the midst of the pandemic, it was all done by phone. I didn't have to sit in any social security office. And having that account has been a godsend. If my sister needs something or if a random medical bill comes in for her, I can just pay it out of the payee account without the hassle of having to petition the court and waiting permission to pay out the funds. I have used it for OTC meds, incontinence care items, and even out-of-pocket physical therapy for her once insurance stopped paying.

I can see how this might present an issue of the guardian in question is unethical and spends the money on other things. But I am not and I don't. The money is building up in my sister's account, and it offers me some comfort to know I have the flexibility to use it for her care without court oversight.

Ohwow323, I was appointed sole Guardian of my Mom by the Court and had to change her bank account to a Guardianship account. Since I have to make a report of her finances to the court every year, I did what you stated above: set up separate bank account, set up excel spreadsheet to account for all expenses and income, keep all receipts in an accordion folder by month with the date and note of what the expense was for. I reconcile Mom's bank statements with expenses and income on a quarterly basis since there's not a lot to account for. When it's time to prepare the court reports, it's fairly simple to do and I attach the excel report of income and expenses. I'm hoping I can use the same excel report for SS. Thanks for sharing!

I would think this would be way more of a hassle than it’s worth. If you’re already PoA, then you should be able to get onto your Dad’s accounts as such, and you should be able to have ss deposited directly to his account so you don’t have to worry about dealing with paper checks. (Any of Dad’s paper checks for anything I just signed as For Deposit Only’ and never had an issue.)
Let the banking system work for you.

I’m not sure what the advantage would be, but there are many people who have posted the disadvantages. If you are on his bank account then I’m not sure why it is even needed. SS funds go in and you use the funds for his care.

Why get government red tape involved unless you absolutely have no other choice?

Let me tell you about my BIL I am representative payee for him and have been for the past 5yrs. Everything was fine until he went into a nursing home why I say that is if there is family of that person watch what you do. I had no problem until that nursing home then they came out of the woodwork I was turned into social security for misuse of funds. If I would have known then what I know now I would turn everything over to the nursing home and let them fight with the family. They are POA's of medical for him they wanted his finances so they could use them like it was their own money not his and they have done that in the past.

If you become representative payee here is a few things you must do keep all your receipts that you pay for them. Keep all the financial stuff for 3 yrs because someone can turn you in they can go back 3 yrs and you would have to prove it all went to the person. No one told me this. When I got turned into social security they only went for 2022 I had to send them every bank statement, every statement that I used his money for, and also the receipts from grocery stores, Walmart, other stores. Keep copies of everything you do for them.

The nursing home where my BIL is will have his social security and his pension I will be giving everything up to them. I have had enough stress to kill someone because of his family. Let the family fight with the nursing home let the nursing home get turned in I am done.

Prayers to you.

Like mstrbill, I am on my father’s bank accounts and have never been a representative payee. I was placed on those accounts early in my father’s dementia diagnosis and while my mother was still alive. I have a friend who was the representative payee for his children (ex-wife was disabled and he had custody of the children). According to him, there is considerable “red tape” associated with becoming and maintaining representative payee status. I am making some assumptions but it appears that if you are a representative payee, the Government wants to ensure that you are spending the money on the person for which it was intended. If the money is not going to you to spend for the person (i.e., the representative payee), but instead is going into the payee’s account, the Government is basically absolved of that responsibility. Just based on my experience and my friend’s experience, I would avoid becoming the representative payee and just have your LO place you on their accounts (if possible). I am my father’s sole heir so I really don’t have to worry about someone later challenging my expenditures (but I still keep good records), but if their are other heirs, I would definitely make sure that you keep excellent records for everything you spend.

I don’t recall any “all of what was involved”, but it did absolutely take a lot of time sitting in the SS office to have her payee approved.

The only time anything went to her residence (mistakenly) was BEFORE I became her designated payee.

I had LO’s SS check mailed directly to her checking account, titled in her name with her 2 POAs.

All of her expenses were paid from that account and no other transactions EXCEPT hers.

Her state and federal taxes were a breeze because all of the expenses and nothing else, came from that account.

All I used when applying to be named “designated payee” was a statement from a behavioral psychiatrist indicating that she was unable to manage her own affairs.

My only additional task was filing a brief online report once a year indicating that her entire check was going to meet her expenses in her residential care settings.

Really, not a big deal at all.

I never became “representative payee” , but I was on the bank account that the SS check was deposited to. I never had any problems, and eventually wrote the checks out to pay for his health care needs.

What I read is that you need to account for the money that is spent for the person the SS money is for. Have a separate bank account for the person and write down everything you spend on that person. Set up an excel sheet and keep all receipts in a folder for what is spent. Write on the receipt what it is for so that when you return to write down what its for its easier. If parent(s) are in a facility keep a copy of the invoice in the file so you can account for it. Blessings