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Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse (2007)

Chapter: Appendix C Guardianship Questions to and Responses from the Social Security Administration

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C Guardianship Questions to and Responses from the Social Security Administration." National Research Council. 2007. Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11992.
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Appendix C
Guardianship Questions to and Responses from the Social Security Administration

During the committee’s deliberations several questions came up about guardianships, court-appointed guardianships, guardianship fees and representative payees. This appendix presents the committee’s formal questions to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the agency’s written responses.

  1. When a court issues a guardianship and states that a guardian may bill for fees, may these fees be deducted from Social Security benefits?

Yes, the fees may be deducted from Social Security benefits.

  1. In a court-appointed guardian situation, is there any circumstance when fees are allowed or not allowed?

If the court approves a fee, SSA cannot deny its payment, and the use of Social Security benefits to pay court authorized guardianship fees is generally considered a proper use of the beneficiary’s funds. However, if Social Security learns that a legal guardian is charging a fee that leaves the beneficiary with unmet needs, our policy provides that the case should be referred to the appropriate regional chief counsel (RCC) for review. If the RCC believes the charges are excessive, the circumstances should be brought to the court’s attention. If representations to the court are unsuccessful, SSA will consider whether a change of payee is appropriate.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C Guardianship Questions to and Responses from the Social Security Administration." National Research Council. 2007. Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11992.
×
  1. When a guardian calculates his/her fees based on a percentage of the total amount of income, may Social Security funds be included in the amount even if no Social Security funds are used to pay these fees?

Yes. Social Security does not instruct or guide the guardian payee in how to compute fees. As noted, SSA generally allows representative payees who are legal guardians to deduct court authorized guardianship fees and those fees may be deducted from Social Security benefits.

  1. May a guardian commingle Social Security benefits with other income or assets derived from sources that may include veteran’s benefits, private pensions, or other routine deposits?

SSA funds must be held in an account which is titled in such a manner as to be clear that the funds are owned by the beneficiary, not the payee. SSA has no restriction regarding holding Social Security funds along with other funds in the same account. Of course, the payee will have to account at least annually to SSA on the use of Social Security funds so, regardless of how the funds are held, a clear record must be kept regarding the use of Social Security funds.

  1. May a guardian bill for legal fees, tax preparation fees or other financial/legal processes where sources for these fees may be from Social Security funds?

For court-approved fees, Social Security does not guide a guardian payee in how to compute a fee request that is submitted to the court.

  1. May State Guardianship Courts trump Social Security policy with regard to fees, when SSA policy states that only certain organizations may be paid a fee for service, and then it is capped on a monthly basis? State-appointed guardians are not fee-for-service organizations as defined by SSA.

The guardianship fees allowed by State guardianship courts are not limited by Social Security policy. This is true because legal guardians are responsible for a wider range of duties and responsibilities than a Social Security representative payee who is not a legal guardian. However, a guardianship organization may also be approved by SSA to be a fee-for-service payee. If they provide evidence that they are performing different duties as a representative payee versus guardianship duties, they could collect a guardianship fee and a fee-for-service amount, but payment for the services may not overlap.

We welcome any recommendations you may have regarding the dual role of legal guardian and representative payee.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C Guardianship Questions to and Responses from the Social Security Administration." National Research Council. 2007. Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11992.
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Page 130
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C Guardianship Questions to and Responses from the Social Security Administration." National Research Council. 2007. Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11992.
×
Page 131
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More than 7 million recipients of Social Security benefits have a representative payee—a person or an organization—to receive or manage their benefits. These payees manage Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance funds for retirees, surviving spouses, children, and the disabled, and they manage Supplemental Security Income payments to disabled, blind, or elderly people with limited income and resources. More than half of the beneficiaries with a representative payee are minor children; the rest are adults, often elderly, whose mental or physical incapacity prevents them from acting on their own behalf, and people who have been deemed incapable under state guardianship laws. The funds are managed through the Representative Payee Program of the Social Security Administration (SSA). The funds total almost $4 billion a month, and there are more than 5.3 million representative payees. In 2004 Congress required the commissioner of the SSA to conduct a one-time survey to determine how payments to individual and organizational representative payees are being managed and used on behalf of the beneficiaries.1 To carry out this work, the SSA requested a study by the National Academies, which appointed the Committee on Social Security Representative Payees. This report is the result of that study.

Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse (1) assesses the extent to which representative payees are not performing their duties in accordance with SSA standards for representative payee conduct, (2) explains whether the representative payment policies are practical and appropriate, (3) identifies the types of representative payees that have the highest risk of misuse of benefits, and (4) finds ways to reduce the risk of misuse of benefits and ways to better protect beneficiaries.

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