Guide for Organizational Representative Payees

Some things a representative payee cannot do

There are some limits to what a payee can do. An SSA payee is legally permitted to manage only Social Security and SSI benefit payments.

Being a payee does not give you authority to:

• use a beneficiary's money for anything other than the beneficiary's needs;

• spend a beneficiary's funds in a way that would leave him or her without necessary items or services (housing, food, clothing, medical care);

• put a beneficiary's Social Security and/or SSI payments in your or another person's account or your organization’s operating account;

• lend a beneficiary’s money to anyone else, including other beneficiaries you serve;

• use a beneficiary's "dedicated account" funds for purposes not related to the child's impairment (for example, not for medical treatment, education, job skills training, etc.);

• keep the beneficiary's conserved funds if you are no longer the payee;

• charge the beneficiary for payee services unless authorized by SSA (see http://www.ssa.gov/payee/NewGuide/payment.htm);

• make medical decisions;

• sign legal documents, other than Social Security documents, on behalf of a beneficiary; and

• have legal authority over wages, pensions, or any income from sources other than Social Security and/or SSI payments.