<p>Asking for a friend:</p>
<p>Parents are divorced and ex-husband is retired and receiving social security.</p>
<p>Their child is 15 and her retired father has been the representative payee for her monthly SS check for the past four years.</p>
<p>The child’s divorced parents agreed verbally that the child’s SS$ would be saved and only used for college.</p>
<p>Now, four years later, it has come to light that the ex-husband has been using the money to pay for some of the child’s expenses (in the divorce decree the parents are 50/50 responsible for the child’s expenses) mainly, school related costs (his half of child’s private high school tuition and incidental fees, and also her car insurance).</p>
<p>Can the minor child request at a local SSA office that the representative payee be changed to her mother so that the verbal agreement to conserve the funds for college is met going forward?</p>
<p>(On a side note, the retired father is not hurting for money and owns a horse, a boat large enough to sleep on, an RV, some ATVs, a new car and his own home. Also, the child spends 80% or more of her time with the mother).</p>
<p>The child has a deceased parent?
Since the duties of a representative payee are to manage the minors immediate expenses, i don’t think saying you want to save it would work, unless it was established that she primarily lives elsewhere and it was needed for living expenses.</p>
<p>[Social</a> Security - Representative Payee Program - When People Need Help Managing Their Money](<a href=“http://www.ssa.gov/payee/index.htm]Social”>Social Security - Representative Payee Program)</p>
<p>To clarify:</p>
<p>No, the child does not have a deceased parent. The parents are divorced and the father is around 70 years old and collects social security. This makes his minor child eligible to received social security through age 18.</p>
<p>The child primarily lives with the mother.</p>
<p>Actually, the child can receive benefits through age 19 as long as they have not yet graduated high school (or become married).</p>
<p>The representative payee is required to show that the benefit has been used for the benefit of the child. I would contact the social security office if this has not been the case. Theoretically, they can get past benefits reimbursed, but in real life it can be difficult to get blood from a stone.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>When my son received S’s benefits when his father retired, I was told that the money could not be saved for his college education. Each year I had to file a form documenting that the money was used for current expenses.</p>
<p>lotsofquests: Did the SSA tell you the money could not be saved for college education? I wonder if a ‘current purpose’ could be a 529 plan…</p>
<p>IxnayBob: Thanks - through month of high school graduation would apply here.</p>
<p>The SSA told me that I had to use my children’s benefits (survivor’s, not retiree’s so the rules might be different) for “current” purposes–i.e. food, clothing, shelter, medical care and insurance, current educational expenses. By current, it meant I could use it to pay for private high school tuition but could not put aside for anticipated college expenses. </p>
<p>What i did is use their benefits for food, shelter, transportation, medical insurance etc, and put an equivalent amount into their college acct. The SSA was OK with that so long as I filed the annual paperwork showing that I had actually spent the money on their support.</p>
<p>She’s 15 & she pays car insurance?</p>
<p>I am sorry that I can’t remember exactly what I was told. I went to the ss office with my H when he retired because he is somewhat number challenged. When the women finished with my husband’s calculations, she then calculated what my S would receive. I made a comment that we would put it away for college, and she said that the money must be spent for current expenses. My sister,who received SS benefits for her children when her husband died, warned me that I would have to complete a yearly report stating how much money was used and how much remained. Although I obviously could state that I used the SS money for him and put aside an equal amount into his college fund, I think the father in the OP is following the regulation.</p>
<p>Btw OP- your screen name is only one letter different than another poster so it might get confusing.
I don’t know much about divorce agreements, but if the daughter spends most of the time with the mother, is she receiving child support & is the SS check included in that calculation?</p>
<p>Sorry - turned 16 recently!</p>
<p>From SSA website:</p>
<p>What should a representative payee consider when deciding how to spend a beneficiary’s money?</p>
<p>As a representative payee, you have the responsibility to use the benefits received only for the use and benefit of the beneficiary.</p>
<p>Your first consideration is to make sure that the benefits are used for the beneficiary’s current maintenance. Current maintenance includes food, housing, clothing, medical care, and personal comfort items.</p>
<p>If funds remain after meeting the beneficiary’s current maintenance needs, give consideration to the beneficiary’s reasonably foreseeable needs.</p>
<p>SO, I see that education and car insurance are not listed above, but ‘reasonably foreseeable needs’ are. </p>
<p>Friend is going to make an appointment with the local SSA office and bring child along so she can understand this better.</p>
<p>Maybe she can convince ex to keep his word and as another poster described, put an equivalent amount into a savings account for college.</p>
<p>There is no alimony or child support.</p>
<p>Update:</p>
<p>The mother was able to change the representative payee from the father to herself and all the funds were transferred through the SSA into a new account under the mother’s control. According to conversations between the mother and the SSA, the money can be 100% saved to be used for college (it does not have to be spent currently for the child’s living expenses).</p>
<p>Thanks for the update!</p>
<p>What’s the difference? Mom Spends 1000 of SS money on clothing and puts 1000 of moms $ in college savings, or mom spends 1000 of her money on clothes and a 1000 of SS $ in college account? Probably more beneficial to put the parent $ in a 529 and spend the SS on current expenses, in case child never goes to college, the parent still owns the $. Seems to me it’s all the same amount of $ coming in, just which pot of $ to use to pay for is what needs to be decided.</p>
<p>The difference is the NCP previously had control of the money and spent $10k+ of it (without putting matching funds away for college) when he had verbally agreed to use his own money for his share of the child’s expenses and save the SS money for college. Now the money is out of his control.</p>
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<p>I think the mother should try to get that in writing. It goes 100% against what I and others have been told. I was told that the government was interested in providing for the child, not in creating savings for them. Thankfully, money is fungible, so I can “spend” the money on my kids current needs, and put aside money in a UTMA account. But the mother should be careful in how she fills out the annual form. </p>
<p>PS Like another responder, I made the casual observation that the kids’ college accounts would appreciate the bump when they became eligible for SS, and the agent promptly told me that is was not acceptable to save the money. </p>
<p>I can’t even begin to figure out how you would account for that money annually. Do you split the grocery bill by how many people are in the house? What about the mortgage? Utilities? Just split it all up evenly among how many are in the household? Or do you keep track of actual use somehow? “Sally drank 3/4 of that gallon of milk this week but Joe only drank 1/4 and the parent didn’t drink any”. And how do they know which dollar came from Social Security and which one came from the paycheck? They all look the same to me. </p>
<p>I get the reasoning behind it- you don’t want some parent getting all that money and going on expensive vacations and what not while the kid hasn’t had new clothes in three years and only eats one meal a day. </p>