Help please! SSI benefits/Inheritance

[kackie123]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY. I am a disabled person who receives SSI and my dad died and I received an inheritance. I had informed my brother who was the executer that I was on SSI. The lawyer that took care of my dad's estate/will, etc. said that it would NOT affect me at all! He THOUGHT I had SSD, which I guess is different and it does NOT affect that. In my case, it DOES! I just found out after months of rec. money that SSI is now telling me that I was to have reported it and is now telling me I may be in serious trouble! I honestly did NOT know! I am scared to death. I didn't even want the money and was looking into putting it into a mutual fund or CD for my two children who lost their father years ago. I have given them some of the money for a car or car repairs and the rest is in a savings acct. until I knew what to do. NOW, I find this out and cannot believe this! am I going to have to give them back what would have been my children's money just because I was holding onto it, being I was looking into finding a place for it, and now, they say "its considered a source of income." (for me) I am at a loss. my dad worked so hard, all his life, served WW2 and Korean war and just wanted to leave his kids and grandkids some sort of life...please help! Thank you.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY. I am a disabled person who receives SSI and my dad died and I received an inheritance. I had informed my brother who was the executer that I was on SSI. The lawyer that took care of my dad's estate/will, etc. said that it would NOT affect me at all! He THOUGHT I had SSD, which I guess is different and it does NOT affect that. In my case, it DOES! I just found out after months of rec. money that SSI is now telling me that I was to have reported it and is now telling me I may be in serious trouble! I honestly did NOT know! I am scared to death. I didn't even want the money and was looking into putting it into a mutual fund or CD for my two children who lost their father years ago. I have given them some of the money for a car or car repairs and the rest is in a savings acct. until I knew what to do. NOW, I find this out and cannot believe this! am I going to have to give them back what would have been my children's money just because I was holding onto it, being I was looking into finding a place for it, and now, they say "its considered a source of income." (for me) I am at a loss. my dad worked so hard, all his life, served WW2 and Korean war and just wanted to leave his kids and grandkids some sort of life...please help! Thank you.

I am sorry, but there is nothing that anyone can do to help you with this. Its simply the reality of the situation.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Just as dad wanted you to have an inheritance, the government does not expect to fund those who have other financial resources. Think of it as the gov't loaning you the money and you now paying them back for the loan when you needed it.

 

[commentator]

Of course what you should have done, and don't let on like you didn't know this, no one is going to believe you, is ask the people who administer your SSI about the inheritance. They'd have been glad to tell you.

Why would you be asking the lawyer who handled the estate about reporting it to SSI and why would you ask him and then pretend you did not have to report it to them because of his answer? That's silly. Do you ask your medical doctor how to do your income taxes? Oh well, just don't go into the situation trying to say you didn't know. You did. How many times have you had to sign things saying that you understand you are to report all income to SSI?

What they'd have done, if you had been straight with them from the beginning, is take you off SSI until you had spent all the inheritance on supporting yourself for those months you had it and didn't report it.

Unfortunately, when you are so low income that you are on SSI, you do not get to keep any inheritance or other means of support that you get and save it for your grandchildren, or put it in a mutual fund or something similar. You are supposed to use it to support yourself, so the government does not have to support you. When you run out of assets, then you are able to get back on SSI again.

What has happened, since you did not report the income, is that you are overpaid all the SSI you have received since you got the inheritance. They will have to make a decision about how overpaid you are. They will probably assess penalties and fees for your failure to report this income.

There are thousands and thousands of people who do this very same thing, try to keep getting SSI and not tell them about an inheritance. You have been caught by cross matching, because they watch everyone all the time, and run checks. They expect people to lie and are not overly shocked about it. Yes, you have now gotten a contact, and have been told you may be in serious trouble. But if they prosecuted every single person who did this to the fullest extent of the law, they'd have to build a lot more jails.

Remember, right now, this is NOT the prosecutor in the criminal justice system that you are going to be dealing with. You are dealing with the fraud unit of this agency, and as I said, they see these things all the time.

Since you have not yet spent all the inheritance money, you have ready access to paying it back. That's what they are really going to be concerned with, not punishing you to the max or throwing you in jail and throwing away the key, but getting the money repaid that you received fraudulently. Right now, go on and contact the agency as they have directed.

Be ready and willing to work with them every way you can. Do not waste their time and yours whining about how your daddy was a veteran and wouldn't have wanted you to spend his money this way. They do not care. You lied. End of story. But at this point, you do not need to use your inheritance to lawyer up and try to act like you are being charged with a crime. You aren't, really, not at this point in the situation.

If you ignore them and will not cooperate with their fraud investigation, you are much more likely to be prosecuted for the fraud. If you refuse to talk to them, refuse to admit wrongdoing, as you might do in a criminal prosecution, you'll just slow up and convolute the process.

You did it, this is how much you have been overpaid, they will tell you this, and this is what they are going to do about it. No negotiation, no tap dancing. End of story. But don't pace and scream and whine and carry on. Just work with them and do the best you can to resolve this situation. As I said, lots of people do this, and get caught and have to pay the money back and get sanctioned so they can't be on SSI again for a very long time, and that's what is very likely will happen to you.

 

[Onderzoek]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY. I am a disabled person who receives SSI and my dad died and I received an inheritance. I had informed my brother who was the executer that I was on SSI. The lawyer that took care of my dad's estate/will, etc. said that it would NOT affect me at all! He THOUGHT I had SSD, which I guess is different and it does NOT affect that. In my case, it DOES! I just found out after months of rec. money that SSI is now telling me that I was to have reported it and is now telling me I may be in serious trouble! I honestly did NOT know! I am scared to death. I didn't even want the money and was looking into putting it into a mutual fund or CD for my two children who lost their father years ago. I have given them some of the money for a car or car repairs and the rest is in a savings acct. until I knew what to do. NOW, I find this out and cannot believe this! am I going to have to give them back what would have been my children's money just because I was holding onto it, being I was looking into finding a place for it, and now, they say "its considered a source of income." (for me) I am at a loss. my dad worked so hard, all his life, served WW2 and Korean war and just wanted to leave his kids and grandkids some sort of life...please help! Thank you.

I agree with the previous posters.

Depending upon the dollar amount, you may be able to offer the balance of your inheritance as a compromise settlement to repay most of your overpayment. Expecting, though, that you can keep all the money and not be overpaid on SSI will not work at all. If the amount is large enough, you should just pay back the entire overpayment and then live on the rest of the money until it runs out. However, if you are ineligible for over 12 months (from the month of receipt of the inheritance), you will have to file a new claim and go through the process of being found disabled again. It will not be automatic.

Too bad your dad's lawyer didn't do a better job of estate planning so the inheritance could have skipped you and you could have remained on public assistance (government money) so your children could have a better life. Also too bad that you didn't read the letters and notices that reminded you that all money had to be reported to SSI. Too late now.

Also, if you give away the money now in order to qualify, you will have a non-pay period of one to 36 months as a penalty.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0502220030

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0501150003