SSI and the IRS phone interview

[theysayjump]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

My wife is on SSI and has been since I think December 2007. Last year she had a phone interview to go over everything and to make sure there were no changes in income and everything was still as is and it went fine. This year, she got a letter notifying her of the same appointment this year, but it states:

"We received information from computer matching with the Internal Revenue Service. Since this information may affect your SSI eligibility or payment amount, we would like to discuss it with you. Under the computer-matching law, we cannot use this information to chance your SSI until we give you 30 days to disagree with it. Computer matching compares your records with those of other agencies......We received information from computer matching with the Internal Revenue Service about "MY NAME"'s income or resources.....Please bring MY NAME with you so that MY NAME will have an opportunity to disagree with it".

So obviously they've checked against my filed taxes (which I file as Married, Jointly with my wife) and want to make sure it's correct and such, but is this normal? If so, why didn't they check the previous year? Is there anything we should expect or should have ready for them (other than the obvious pay cheques, tax records etc)?

Last year I won a couple of prizes that I filed on my taxes as they totalled more than $600 each, and the same happened this year so I'm guessing that's why they're mentioning this fact, but is this something to be concerned about or is there a chance that my wife may lose SSI?

Any help or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[Onderzoek]

The computer match is actually with the 1099 issued by the place who paid these "prizes". It exceeded the disregard dollar amount tolerance and unless you specifically reported receipt to the Social Security office, they did not have any way of knowing until the IRS interface (which can happen 6-12 months after the event) posts the data to the SSI system. But, SSA is not supposed to take any action on the alert info until after they talk to your wife.

Bottom line, your prizes are supposed to be reported to SSI just as your wages, your unemployment, your insurance settlements, and pretty much any other money you or she gets from anywhere.

It is likely that these prizes will be considered income for SSI and used in the deeming computation for the months received. This may create an overpayment of SSI that will be assessed. Be sure to report this year's prizes as well, and from now on, report all prizes the month after receipt.

[lucrio]

I received a similar letter. However, instead of "Internal Revenue Service" regarding the computer matching, mine stated "State Reported Wage". Could you please explain to me what this is? My state is Kentucky.

Thanks!

[BL]

If a prize is NOT transferable to cash ,as I understand it , depending on the amount it may or may not effect SSI payments.

SSI should have also caught it , if you had to give your SS# to sign for the prize(s) .

As for noting husband's income , yes they will want to discuss it .