Dad moved here from another state to Michigan in December 2019, transferred his social security to here and opened his own checking account. He originally lived with my brother for 8 months and he had to move in with us because his wife didn't want him there. As his COPD and memory have gotten worse I've had to take care of him and he had to have hospice visit twice a week here at home for his COPD. He wasn't diagnosed as incompetent by any court. My wife and I are co-POAs and help him. Also have joint accounts for when his SS check gets deposited. If I call SSA to change his address, will they require one of us be his payee or has anyone ran into this at all?
I handled my dads banking and SS without ever becoming Rep payee, everything possible was done online and with bank checks, my dad got 200.00 monthly cash and gave me 200.00 to cover his supplemental insurance premium that was paid with my credit card and his cell phone.
Becoming Rep payee means you have to account to SS for every penny annually. I understand this but, not every situation requires this kind of accountability.
stating that he has found no reason your father cannot handle his own affairs.
Even if he needs assistance for this with hands on help and financial counselors, it may not be necessary to have a rep-payee.
However, your father might need to appear at a Social Security office.
With a Rep-Payee, the person is not allowed to have access to their income.
If the first move did not trigger a need for rep-payee, it may not trigger it this time. Can you change the address online, from his online e-mail account?
Get one.
He doesn't have to be diagnosed as incompetent to get this done. When you are his payee you can change anything like addresses or accounts. Also if you call SSA he can tell them that they can talk to you. I have done this too.
If you are his rep payee no one can touch his social security not even a POA of financial. I know this because my BIL's family tried to get POA of finances to get a hold of his social security didn't happen they gave up when social security said they will have to send a letter to me to see if I wanted to give it up. Which I didn't because I knew they would take every dime he has. Right now my BIL is in a nursing home in memory care because of dementia and I am still his rep payee.
Prayers to you and your family.
I have medical and financial poa and I am on moms bank account. So far I have been able to handle everything necessary. If I ever have to make a change like where her checks are deposited or anything like that, it would be necessary for me to apply to be her representative payee. I am hoping it won't come to that. It's not that I know of anyone that has had issues, It just scares me to do anything that would jeopardize her money and I know the government has the power to freeze things up if they question what is going on.
I believe being a POA helps already. With a paper Power Of Attorney copy, I sent my mom's change of address to Social Security and they started sending everthing to my address. She lives in a facility eleswhere even. One of the articles in her POA says that copies are legally binding, so scanning them and sending PDFs to places that need them has saved a lot of paper and toner for us. She had this durable POA drawn up years ago.
To do/have her taxes done and sign them legally (I live a distance), I also filed with IRS using Form 2848 (Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative) to set up a CAF (Centralized Authorization File) Number which I use for other documents also. It's become helpful for me to have this number when also when places ask if I have authority to do something for her, and now that she's become even less able to sign her signature on lines where needed.
Hope this helps! Best of luck!
https://www.ssa.gov/onlineservices/?gclid=CjwKCAiAy_CcBhBeEiwAcoMRHGHIvoznAB0IvTc3IM_e1VUzqO3z8bHW7Z9oBllwi0RREJBV1-6tMBoCDu0QAvD_BwE
See if you can change the address on line. If you call, use his phone.
Also seeing that one can set advanced payee and that's good to know, I'll have to make a note to ask my mom about that later.
See All Answers