How much aid can I get realistically?

annoyingdad
Sat, 11 Oct 2014 17:04:14 +0000

I would think that the $30k is what’s on the parents’ tax return and would be solely the Dad’s. If the Dad is getting $50k+ a year in dividends there are a lot of assets which most likely resulted from a high income for a long time and thus large social security payments. The $400k in home equity would indicate that too. But maybe not. The kid’s social security shouldn’t be included on the parents’ tax return.

I do think the Dad in this case should have discussed this money with the children when he retired and how it would be used. I discussed it up front with my daughter and she understood. Some of it was allocated to her expenses in case the SS admin asked, some was saved. In the end though it all served to increase what we could contribute for college.

In reading the Guide for Representative Payees though, there was no mention that it all could be saved. Most of that guide is for elderly, incapacitated etc. people where the payee could be an external person, lawyer etc. or non-nuclear family member. The part concerning the OP’s situation with a parent representative payee still talked about spending the money on current needs which really may be needed for that purpose in the case of many retirees who don’t have the income of the OP or even me. Retirement isn’t always voluntary and many retirees are just scraping by and if they had kids late in life are just hoping to get them through HS and self supporting.