OT - Anyone here a Social Security representative payee?

I have been asked by a long time friend to be her Social Security representative payee. She was determined by the Court to be unable to manage here Social Security monthly checks and back pay. I have accepted the responsibility and will give it a try for a while and hope it will not effect our friendship. I have explained to my friend and have shown her on the SSI website the duties of a payee and responsibilities that go with it. I am a very good bookkeeper and pretty good budgeting money so I think I will do all right. Does anyone have any experience or advice? If so, I would like to hear about it. Thank you for any input.

I would check immediately with a lawyer to find out what your possible liabilities could be in the event there is ever a concern on either side about where money is going and how it got there. Where is her family?

I'm the representative payee for my Mom who is in a nursing home. You must keep records and receipts for every penny spent. Social Security can, at any time, request the records to show exactly what was spent on what. The money needs to be deposited into a separate bank account in your name only. The beneficiary of that account must be willing to hand the funds over to the next rep. payee if anything happens to you. There are only certain things the money can be spent on, but every penny has to be spent on the person you are representing. Any dealings with SS will be done thru you from now on. Be prepared to sit in the SS office at least a couple of times a year to take care of business. If you have any questions feel free to PM me and I'll see if I can help.

Brenda

tgzlavistane wrote:I have been asked by a long time friend to be her Social Security representative payee. She was determined by the Court to be unable to manage here Social Security monthly checks and back pay. I have accepted the responsibility and will give it a try for a while and hope it will not effect our friendship. I have explained to my friend and have shown her on the SSI website the duties of a payee and responsibilities that go with it. I am a very good bookkeeper and pretty good budgeting money so I think I will do all right. Does anyone have any experience or advice? If so, I would like to hear about it. Thank you for any input.

One of my first jobs included managing the money of several people as social security payee. The biggest challenged I frequently ran into was the person believing they had more money than they did and at times getting angry with me when I had to set limits and say, "I'm sorry, but you don't have money for......" For some, I gave play money in the amount of their check once a month, then had them to give me play money back to pay for rent, utilities, and other expenses. Then we decided how they would like to spend the remaining money or if they wanted to save.....typically not much to save. Record keeping is a must...keep receipts for items purchased and a log for cash provided. Payee can work out in friendships but it can be risky as money can easily be the source of conflict in any relationship. Good Luck.

elg5cats