Health & Benefits

A representative payee is someone who manages another person’s Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. The payee can be an individual or an organization. Social Security pays the person’s benefits to the representative payee on the person’s behalf. The payee uses the benefits to meet the person’s basic needs.

Representative payees are most common when the person getting Social Security is a child or an adult with a disability. Sometimes Social Security appoints a representative payee for an elderly person who is getting retirement or old age benefits when their health has deteriorated. Social Security can appoint a representative payee for any of the different kinds of benefits it administers.

If Social Security asks you to be a representative payee for someone’s Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, they will ask you to fill out their application form. If they appoint you as a representative payee, your main job will be to use the benefits to meet the person’s basic needs. Basic needs means:

• Food,
• Shelter (rent or mortgage),
• Utilities,
• Toiletries,
• Clothing,
• Medical care,
• Medicines, and
• Other basics.

You may not use the person’s money for your own needs. But, you can use the person’s money to pay their share of household expenses if they live with you.

You can give the person a small amount of spending money if you believe the person can handle that money without endangering themselves. But, do not simply turn over the Social Security or SSI to the person you are representative payee for. As the payee, your responsibilities include making decisions about how to spend the benefits in the person’s best interest and using the money to meet the person’s basic needs.

Social Security has strict rules about when you may use the person’s money to pay past debts. If you are considering paying past debts, check with Social Security.

In most cases, you must keep the person’s money separate from your own money. In every case, you must keep track of how you spend the money.

As the payee, you also are responsible for reporting to Social Security if the person’s situation changes in a way that impacts their benefits. Examples of information you would report to Social Security are if the person:

• Moves,
• Starts to get other government benefits,
• Goes back to work,
• Gets married, or
• Is in jail or prison.

If you are the payee for a child with a disability, you also will be responsible for arranging medical care for the child for the disabling condition.

If you are the payee for someone on SSI, it is also your responsibility to make sure the beneficiary meets all of the SSI income and asset rules. Violating one of those rules may cause an overpayment that has to be paid back by you and the beneficiary.

Important: You cannot use the person’s Social Security or SSI benefits for yourself, except to pay a fair share of household expenses when the person lives with you. If you do use the money for yourself, you will be responsible for paying it back. It can be a crime to use the Social Security or SSI benefits for yourself.

A court-appointed guardian and a representative payee are not the same thing. The processes are different. Social Security will not pay someone’s benefits to the court-appointed guardian unless it has appointed that person as the representative payee.

If a person who is getting Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits has a court-appointed guardian, Social Security’s policies say that the person must have a representative payee. Usually, Social Security will name the guardian to also be the representative payee. However, if Social Security decides another person would be a better representative payee, they can appoint that person. If this happens, hopefully, the guardian and the representative payee can work together to be sure the person’s needs are met.

If you are a representative payee for someone and the Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) does not cover the person’s needs, you might need help with budgeting or working with the person to create a budget. You might also need help learning what other benefits the person might be able to apply for, such as: 

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, or 

• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). 

Being a representative payee does not give you the authority to apply for benefits on the person’s behalf, but the person might give you that authority. A court-appointed guardian of the estate has the authority to apply for other benefits on the person’s behalf.

The representative payee is not required to use their own money to support the person who is getting Social Security or SSI benefits. The one exception to this is where the representative payee is the parent of a child under 18 who is receiving Social Security or SSI. Parents of minor children have a legal obligation to support their children.

No. In most cases, you must keep the person’s Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits in a separate bank account. Be sure to label the account so that it is clear that the money belongs to the person you are payee for. For example, you can label the account this way: [the person’s name] by [your name], representative payee.

You are allowed to keep the person’s money in the same account with your money if:

• You are the payee for your spouse or your child, and
• You live in the same household with that person.

However, you still must keep careful records of how you have used the money.

Note: If you are the payee for a child with a disability who gets a back SSI benefit when they are first approved for SSI, that money should go into a separate account called a “dedicated account.”

Social Security deposits monthly Social Security or SSI benefits directly into a bank account. If the person has other money or savings that did not come from Social Security, it is smart to open a separate account only for Social Security benefits. This will protect the benefits from collection by creditors. Learn more about debt collection and Social Security benefits.  

If the person you are payee for is in a nursing home or institution, use their Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to pay the nursing home fees. If the person is on SSI, the SSI benefit is probably not enough to cover the full cost of the nursing home. Medicaid is probably covering the rest of the cost.

Medicaid rules allow you to set aside $60 each month to use for the individual’s personal needs, like haircuts, soap, and shampoo. The Medicaid rules are complicated, so ask questions if you need help figuring out how the nursing home costs are being covered and what rules apply. You can get information from the business office at the nursing home or from the Illinois Department of Human Services.

If there is extra money after you pay the person’s expenses, you should invest that money. If possible, you should invest the money in US Savings Bonds or in an interest or dividend-paying account. The account should be in a bank, trust company, credit union, or savings and loan association that is insured under either federal or state law.

Any interest or dividends belong to the person you are representative payee for, not you. If the amount left after you pay for the person’s basic needs is a small amount, it may not be possible to find an interest-bearing account. If that happens, keep the money in the account where it is directly deposited.

You are also allowed to give the person a small amount of spending money. Do not use the money to pay past debts, meaning debts from before you became payee, without first checking with Social Security.

If the person you are payee for has waited a long time to get their benefits, they may get a large amount of back benefits. If the person is getting Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security will pay the back payment in installments, spread out over three payments. You must use that money for the person’s basic needs and, if there is enough, for basic things that will make the person’s life better. Someone who has been waiting for Social Security or SSI for a long time may have needs like:

• A winter coat and boots,
• A new stove or furnace if they own their home,
• A security deposit and the first month’s rent, if they are able to live on their own, or
• A motorized wheelchair.

If there is money left, you should invest that money. If you have questions about how you can spend the back benefits, you can check with Social Security.

Important: The SSI program is for people who do not have a lot of other income or assets. A person can only get SSI if they have less than $2,000 in “countable” assets or resources. The rules are complicated, but if a person’s bank account goes over $2,000 (not counting the current month’s SSI), that person is not eligible for SSI for that month. “Countable assets” include stocks, bonds, and US savings bonds.

As a representative payee, it is important for you to keep an eye on the amount in the bank account and on other assets that count for SSI purposes. When someone gets a large back payment, that money does not count against the $2,000 for nine months to allow time to use the money to meet the person’s needs.

You can also explore Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) and ABLE accounts. PASS is an SSI provision that helps individuals with disabilities return to work. PASS allows individuals with disabilities to set aside money and property to achieve a specific work goal. ABLE accounts allow eligible people with disabilities to save and invest without losing federal benefits such as SSI. 

A “dedicated account” is a special account that is for SSI benefits that Social Security pays to cover the time a child was waiting to be approved for disability benefits. These are also called back SSI benefits. The money in that account can only be used for certain things that are listed in Social Security’s policy or that Social Security specifically approves. 

Learn more about dedicated accounts. 

Some representative payees file a written report every year, and others report only if Social Security asks for information. Either way, it is important to keep very good records. One way to do this is to get a big envelope and put every receipt and bank statement in the envelope so that it is all in one place. If the envelope gets too full, you can make one envelope for every year that you are the representative payee. If there is no receipt for money you spent, write down what you spent the money on and how much you spent. Keep that record. If you keep records on the computer, make sure you have a good filing system so that you can find the records if you need them.

Here are some examples of documents to keep: 

• Rent receipts,
• Copies of the person’s lease,
• Utility bills and receipts,
• Receipts for clothing you bought for the person,
• Receipts for toiletries and household items, and
• Bank statements.

If you are not sure whether to keep a document or paper, keep it.

Representative payees must be able to answer these questions if Social Security asks: 

• Where the person lived during the time they are looking at,
• Who made the decisions on how to save or spend the benefits,
• How the benefit payments were used, and
• How much of the benefit payments were saved, and how the savings were invested.

Most representative payees must file a written report with Social Security at least once a year. Social Security will mail a report to you each year if you are required to file one. You can also complete the form online.

However, if you are a representative payee for someone getting benefits and you fit one of these categories, you do not need to file a report unless Social Security asks you to:

• You are the parent or legal guardian of a disabled child under 18 who lives with you and receives benefits,
• You are the parent of a disabled adult who lives with you and receives benefits, or
• You are the spouse of the person who receives benefits.

Even though you are not required to file a report each year if you fit one of these categories, you still must keep good records. Social Security can ask you at any time to show what you did with the Social Security benefits.

Note for undocumented immigrant parents of US citizens: If you are an undocumented immigrant parent of a US citizen child who is on Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, Social Security might not send the report to you if the Social Security records do not show that you are the parent. It is important to keep good records if this is your situation.

Some organizations can be paid for their services as representative payees. Such organizations include not-for-profit social service agencies and some government agencies. They must be approved by Social Security and have at least five people for whom they are payees.

If you are an individual who is a representative payee, you cannot be paid for being a payee. Social Security will not pay you, and you are not allowed to take money from the person’s benefits to pay yourself. Taking part of the benefits to pay yourself or to use for yourself is a crime.

If you have been convicted and sentenced to at least one year in prison, you cannot be a representative payee. However, Social Security may make an exception if it is in the best interest of the person receiving Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

The rules are complicated. Whether Social Security will make an exception depends on things like:

• The specific criminal conviction,
• The person with a record’s relationship to the person getting benefits, and
• Whether there is anyone else who can serve as payee. 

As the representative payee, you must use the person’s benefits to meet their needs. You can and probably should talk with the person you are the payee for about what the person needs, but you must make the decisions about how to spend the money. You are not required to do what the person asks you to do with the money. Social Security has appointed you as payee because it has decided that you can make good decisions about how to spend the person’s money, and the person would have trouble making good decisions themselves.

If there is enough money, you can give the person a small amount of spending money. Other than that, you should not and are not permitted to give money to the person you are payee for.

You are not required to continue as the representative payee if you do not want to. Let Social Security know that you do not want to be the payee any longer. You can:

• Visit the local Social Security office,
• Call the Social Security worker you worked with when you first became the representative payee, or
• Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 to let them know that you do not want to be the payee any longer.

Social Security will tell you what to do with any money you still are holding for the person. Social Security may tell you to give the money to:

• A new representative payee,
• The person you have been payee for, or
• To Social Security itself.

Wait for instructions from Social Security because you still are responsible for the money.

You may be responsible for an overpayment that Social Security made to the person if the overpayment happened while you were the representative payee. The person you are payee for is also responsible for repaying the overpayment.

To collect from you, Social Security can keep part of your benefits if you receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Social Security can also collect the overpayment in other ways. For example, they can take a federal tax refund that is due to you.

You can be excused from repaying the overpayment if the overpayment was not your fault and you cannot meet your basic needs if you have to pay it back or have your benefits reduced. Being excused from repaying is called “waiver.” This is because Social Security waives or gives up its right to collect from you. If the overpayment was caused by Social Security and you gave Social Security all the required information, that is one example where the overpayment is not your fault.

You have the right to file an appeal if you do not think there was an overpayment at all. You must file this kind of appeal within 65 days of the date on the notice telling you that you received an overpayment. This appeal is called a “request for reconsideration.” If the 65 days have already passed, do not give up. Social Security's rules allow late filing of appeals in some cases.

You also have the right to ask for a waiver to be excused from repaying the overpayment. There is no deadline for asking for waiver, but asking sooner is better. Learn more about how to handle Social Security overpayments. 

The Social Security website has information for representative payees. Social Security also has answers to frequently asked questions and a Guide for Representative Payees.