WHAT ARE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE PAYEE'S DUTIES?
The most important duty of a payee is to know the needs of the beneficiary and to use the benefits in the best interests of the beneficiary. Your representative payee must first use your SSI benefits for your current basic needs for food, clothing, and housing.
Each year, we will ask your representative payee to complete a simple accounting report showing how they spent the money.
The representative payee should respond on your behalf to any of our requests for action or information. Common requests are the annual representative payee accounting, the SSI redetermination of eligibility or request for a continuing disability review.
Your representative payee's authority is limited to matters between you and us. A representative payee is not the same as a power of attorney. A representative payee has no authority to enter into any binding contracts on your behalf.
Your representative payee is responsible for reporting to us any changes in your circumstances that could affect your eligibility to benefits (e.g., income, resources, change of address, living arrangements, return to work, etc.).
You or your representative payee may, at any time, request that we change or terminate the payee arrangement. Following such a request, we will investigate the situation and make a determination.
IMPORTANT:Social Security needs volunteers to serve as representative payees. If you would like more information, please visit our special website or call your local Social Security office. Also, please see the booklets, A Guide for Representative Payees. and Guide for Organizational Representative Payees.
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