ssi payee needs help

[mysterypanda09]

Kansas
i have always been my sons ssi payee since birth. i was divorced in 2002. social security has been on my back since. I received $380.00 a month alimony until last year. my son received $385.00 child support. my son now 18 still receives child support in the amount of $385.00 a month and ssi- his last year in high school. last year i was told i had a over payment of $4,000 and my son had a under payment of $5,000. his went into a saving account. mine they are taking out monthly $68.00 of my $675.00 each month. my sons ssi is determed by his child support each month. his $385.00 comes bi-weekly. where the clerk of courts sends in at the end of each month ,to a woman named pam at the ss office. who sends me a letter stating what my son will recieve each month in ssi. but i was told they are still guessing what and how his child support falls each month. for the last 4 months he has reveived $316.00 a month which can no way be the same each month. based on how many weeks in a month.
as far as his under payment i was told to send recipts to pam and get her permission before i take any monies out of his account. the first $2,000.00 i did. the remaining amount $2,678.00 i did not. using it for housing food clothing his school, his needs and wants. now she says i have 2 days to prove what this money was used for and she will tell me if i used it right or not if not i have to repay this out of my $604.00 a month. i have asked her to allow me to repay mine and then if she wants money put back into the account. then repay his she said no. and now that my son is 18 and i am still his payee i have to put his ssi in a account. she says his child support should be what i use. i do not under stand i have always used the monies for housing food clothing school his wants and needs. she said it is now different and i must keep track of how his money is spent and rent and bills have to be equally devided because my son will contuine to live with me he can not live on his own at this time.
this has me so upset i am now just crying i feel she is just upset because we got such a large amount through the divorce and told me her 2 children only receive $25.00 each a month.
can you please help me under stand why this woman is being so hard to deal with. even the trustee of court and i hired a lawyer to look over the over payment under payment and feel it should have been brought to my attention before the alimony was over. but the lawyer agreed with ssi and the trustee does not.
help!

 

[Onderzoek]

I don't totally understand your problem. Are both of you on SSI? SSI is a needs based, welfare program with lots of rules. It may help to think of following the SSI rules as the price you pay for getting a check each month. A person who does have a job has to do things they don't want to do in order to get a paycheck every week. Getting SSI is a choice.

You have a son who has been on SSI for 18 years or more? Now that he is an adult (you may consider him your baby boy forever, but he is an adult), there are a different set of rules that apply to him. One is that for a minor child, 1/3 of child support is excluded from income. For an adult child (doesn't matter that he is still in high school) all of the child support is considered income.

As a minor child living with a parent, it is the parent's living arrangement that controls the child's living arrangement. When he became an adult living with another adult (yes, you his mother), then SSI must document whether or not he contributes to household expenses and you must be able to provide the dollar amounts. You no longer have one pot of money to pay bills from. You have your money. You manage his money. You need to have have separate bank accounts. You are not one economic unit. You are two adults. You can either pay all the bills yourself and tally up his 1/2 at the end of the month or he can pay 1/2 as he goes or you can average it and take the same amount each month.

Not sure why there is an overpayment for you and an underpayment for him, but you are separate people.

I don't think the employee is appying rules to you that would not be applied to others. Sounds like pretty usual SSI policy. You just don't like the rules. Again, you have a choice to get SSI or not.

 

[BL]

You have to abide by being a Rep. payee for an adult now .

REP payee guideline:
A Guide For Representative Payees

Living arrangements:
Definition of a living arrangement.

she says i have 2 days to prove what this money was used for and she will tell me if i used it right or not if not i have to repay this out of my $604.00 a month.

Yes ,you have to keep a log .

If you don't have receipts ,at least provide a log of the expenses .

Remember, the law requires representative payees to use the benefits properly. If a payee misuses benefits, he or she must repay the misused funds. A payee who is convicted of misusing funds may be fined and imprisoned.

 

[Swgfan]

I am NOT an expert but from a common sense point of view I have to ask these questions. Why on Gods Green Earth would you submit the receipts for the first 2000 dollars and then just spend the other half of the money without keeping any receipts?? You KNEW that she wanted every receipt for every penny spent and you complied with that for the first half of the money but then all of a sudden you decided to just say screw it and spend the second half without documenting it?

Then you ask her if you can finish paying off your debt and then start repaying what you spent out of his?? I feel sad for your situation but at the same time I'm wondering what you really used that 2000+ dollars for and why you didn't document it.

I imagine the lady dealing with your SSI case is looking at this the same way as I am, from an outside point of view. She is wondering why you documented 2 grand then spent another 2 grand without any documentation. Maybe you went to the casino with the money and thought you could double it but ended up losing and now your trying to say you spent it on your childs well being.
Sounds harsh and cruel but honestly they have a system in place of checks and balances to make sure people don't commit fraud.

If they didn't make you document that money then who's to say what people would use it for? New boats, plastic surgery, gambling, etc.

Again I feel bad for your situation because I have no idea how anyone could live off of $600 a month and I live in backwoods Louisiana where stuff is dirt cheap but even 600 bucks would barely cover rent and utilities let alone have money for insurance, food, tv, phone, internet, gas for auto, etc.
However I have to side with the SSI people and wonder what you used that second half of the money for and why didn't you keep receipts like the first half?

Also your child is 18 now and they are considered an adult and the SSI office is just trying to protect your childs money by telling you it must go into a bank account of his own. Even though he cannot support himself they want you to sort of treat him like a roommate and divide up the bills etc and allow him to pay that on his own.
I think you are crying because you realize that you are losing his money that you have become used to over the years and your wondering how your going to pay your bills now. If your son continues to live with you then you should just make him pay for half the electric, rent etc and that will come out of his account. However if he decided to up and leave then yes, his money will go with him and you should prepare for this eventuality and adjust your finances accordingly.
Like I said, living off 600 bucks a month is going to be tough for you. If it is at all possible for you to go back to work I'd think about it, otherwise you are in for a long life of extreme poverty and that honestly makes me feel bad for anyone in that situation.

I know that life is sometimes not fair

 

[mysterypanda09]

I am NOT an expert but from a common sense point of view I have to ask these questions. Why on Gods Green Earth would you submit the receipts for the first 2000 dollars and then just spend the other half of the money without keeping any receipts?? You KNEW that she wanted every receipt for every penny spent and you complied with that for the first half of the money but then all of a sudden you decided to just say screw it and spend the second half without documenting it?

Then you ask her if you can finish paying off your debt and then start repaying what you spent out of his?? I feel sad for your situation but at the same time I'm wondering what you really used that 2000+ dollars for and why you didn't document it.

I imagine the lady dealing with your SSI case is looking at this the same way as I am, from an outside point of view. She is wondering why you documented 2 grand then spent another 2 grand without any documentation. Maybe you went to the casino with the money and thought you could double it but ended up losing and now your trying to say you spent it on your childs well being.
Sounds harsh and cruel but honestly they have a system in place of checks and balances to make sure people don't commit fraud.

If they didn't make you document that money then who's to say what people would use it for? New boats, plastic surgery, gambling, etc.

Again I feel bad for your situation because I have no idea how anyone could live off of $600 a month and I live in backwoods Louisiana where stuff is dirt cheap but even 600 bucks would barely cover rent and utilities let alone have money for insurance, food, tv, phone, internet, gas for auto, etc.
However I have to side with the SSI people and wonder what you used that second half of the money for and why didn't you keep receipts like the first half?

Also your child is 18 now and they are considered an adult and the SSI office is just trying to protect your childs money by telling you it must go into a bank account of his own. Even though he cannot support himself they want you to sort of treat him like a roommate and divide up the bills etc and allow him to pay that on his own.
I think you are crying because you realize that you are losing his money that you have become used to over the years and your wondering how your going to pay your bills now. If your son continues to live with you then you should just make him pay for half the electric, rent etc and that will come out of his account. However if he decided to up and leave then yes, his money will go with him and you should prepare for this eventuality and adjust your finances accordingly.
Like I said, living off 600 bucks a month is going to be tough for you. If it is at all possible for you to go back to work I'd think about it, otherwise you are in for a long life of extreme poverty and that honestly makes me feel bad for anyone in that situation.

I know that life is sometimes not fair

i have never miused my sons monies. his father washed his hands of our son a long time ago. i have never been to a casino. not mad at the least about losing his money. we will share 1/2 of all bills. here in kansas there are only so many programs to help children with disabillies. i can not work thank you very much for a rude reply but there are alot of you who think this way.

 

[BL]

i have never miused my sons monies. his father washed his hands of our son a long time ago. i have never been to a casino. not mad at the least about losing his money. we will share 1/2 of all bills. here in kansas there are only so many programs to help children with disabillies. i can not work thank you very much for a rude reply but there are alot of you who think this way.

What has happened with this matter .

Did you at least submit a log of the expenses ?

In every decision are details about appealing the decisions made.

 

[Swgfan]

Yeah I know it sounded rude but I'm trying to show you what an outside opinion looks like. You see, this is what the lady down at the SS office thinks as she's looking at your case file. She doesn't know you or understand you any differently than she knows the other 1000 cases sitting on her desk.

She gets to work on an average day and picks up a stack of files to look over and she see's yours and reads that you have spent a certain amount of money without documenting it.
At that point what is she supposed to think? Does she just take your word for it? No, because people lie thats a fact and I'm not saying you would lie but they cannot take everyones word on every case.

There are lots and lots of people who would take advantage of the system and for this reason they require some documentation.

Also I used the casino scenario as an example. My NON expert advice is the same as someone else already posted. Make a list of what you spent the money on and just submit that. Even if you don't have any receipts at least you can submit a list of expenses that the money was used on and hopefully they might take it.