SSI income question

[autismMom]

What is the name of your state? Alabama
My autistic child receives SSI benefits. My husband has found out he is getting a special bonus in March. I'm pretty sure it will push our income over the limit for that month and we won't qualify for any benefits for March.
What happens when you have too much income one month. I was told you can move on and off the SSI rolls. Any extra money we get is pretty much already spent and will go to pay bills, buy my daughter's enzymes etc. There will be very little if any left.
What will happen when I report this? Do they look at the actual amount we get or the amount before taxes, because I understand it will be taxed at a higher rate than regular income? Can this count as a resource because we are certainly not close to over the resource limit.What is the name of your state?

[rmet4nzkx]

Contact your local autism society or independent living center they are likely the best source of your practical options as to how the bonus money is reported and if there is any way to offset it with her extraordinary uncovered expenses. Also were you affected by the hurricanes?

[autismMom]

Unfortunately we are in a very rural area and there are pretty much no autism services, nothing like an autism service center exists.
No we were not affected by the hurricanes this time around, thank goodness. Several months ago when I thought I might sell a story I also had to report a slight change in my husband's income. I asked then about how I would report it if I sold a story for a significant amount. The lady told me that people move on and off SSI all the time. That you could get say $20,000 (now the bonus will be nothing remotely close to this at all) and if you used it, didn't carry any over or something like that, you would not be eligible for benefits for that one month, but not for subsequent months.
I am so nervous about this because we already have a huge overpayment due to my father-in-law having an insurance policy on my husband that we didn't know about. My father-in-law thought he still owned it, was paying the premiumns, but ownership had passed to my husband when he turned 21. It was a big mess and we finally gave up fighting because my MIL was sick at the time and we just couldn't go through anymore.
Now I am so anxious whenever I have to deal with SSA. The last year they have looked at our paystubs every three months.

[rmet4nzkx]

[url]http://www.autism-alabama.org/[/url]
ALABAMA
Alabama SILC 5510 Wards Ferry Road, Suite G Montgomery, AL 36117 Ph: (334) 395-6300
FAX: (334) 286-8447

Independent Living Center
mailto:ILC@Zebra.net 5304 Overlook Road
Mobile, AL 36618 Ph: (334) 460-0301 Voice
TTY (334) 460-2872

Interpreter Beeper (334) 690-0503
Fax: (334) 341-1267

Burmingham ILC 206 Thirteenth St., South
Birmingham, AL 35233 Ph: 205-251-2223
Fax: 205-251-0605

BILC-Jasper Office P O Box 434
Jasper, Alabama Ph: 205-387-0159
TTY: 205-387-0162

[BL]

Depending on the amount of the bonus say 3 - 5 grand , you could call SSA and ask . Ask if you could file a waiver ( to be able to keep the bonus without effecting the SSI ) . If it's approved , you usually have 30 days to spend the amount waived , so the waiver to hold .

[autismMom]

I called my local SSA office yesterday and reported the bonus. It was less than $3,000 before taxes and less than $2,000 after taxes.
Anyway, what she told me is that it would count as income for March and since we already had received our March check, we would get an overpayment notice because the bonus made us ineligible for that month.
She said we would be told to repay the amount of the March check and that we could do that, or we could pay part of it and add the rest to the overpayment we are already paying back. The bonus, she said, only affected one month and anything carried over would count toward our resource limit. I doubt there will be much, if any, carried over. This bonus is paying bills.
I was kind of confused because I thought the March check was paid based on January's income and that March's income determined May's check. From what she said, we could have avoided an overpayment by reporting this before we got the March check. One problem, how do you report something that you don't know about until you get it.
Now, she said it would only affect one month, but I'm wondering what will happen with May's check because won't they have to base it on March's income and that is when the bonus was paid.
The SSA worker was very nice, but I'm not too happy about this showing up as an overpayment. Guess that is how it will work though.

[BL]

Originally Posted by autismMom

I called my local SSA office yesterday and reported the bonus. It was less than $3,000 before taxes and less than $2,000 after taxes.
Anyway, what she told me is that it would count as income for March and since we already had received our March check, we would get an overpayment notice because the bonus made us ineligible for that month.
She said we would be told to repay the amount of the March check and that we could do that, or we could pay part of it and add the rest to the overpayment we are already paying back. The bonus, she said, only affected one month and anything carried over would count toward our resource limit. I doubt there will be much, if any, carried over. This bonus is paying bills.
I was kind of confused because I thought the March check was paid based on January's income and that March's income determined May's check. From what she said, we could have avoided an overpayment by reporting this before we got the March check. One problem, how do you report something that you don't know about until you get it.
Now, she said it would only affect one month, but I'm wondering what will happen with May's check because won't they have to base it on March's income and that is when the bonus was paid.
The SSA worker was very nice, but I'm not too happy about this showing up as an overpayment. Guess that is how it will work though.

Ok , when you get the Letter of overpayment , file a Waiver Form with SSA ( local Office is better ) . Write down the repayment would cause a hardship, Etc .

I / We did this with a payment of 3 grand , and the waiver was approved , We put dpwn the overpayment was no fault of my own ,although the money was from a wrongful death case .

[url]http://www.ssa.gov/online/ssa-632.html[/url]

[url]http://www.ssa.gov/online/ssa-632.pdf[/url]