How Will Handling My Mother's Affairs Affect My SSDI?
Full Question:
Answer:
A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia alone is not an indication of incompetence.
Legal capacity is the level of judgment and decision-making ability needed to sign official documents. In order to be competent or have legal capacity to sign documents, a person must be able to understand and appreciate the consequences of his/her actions. In most cases, the person with dementia is able to understand the meaning and importance of a given legal document.
Once a person is diagnosed with dementia, family and friends should help the person make legal plans. The sooner plans can begin, the more the person with dementia may be able to participate.
Planning for incompetence includes:
-Making plans for health care and long-term care coverage
-Making plans for finances and property
-Naming another person to make decisions on behalf of the person with dementia
A living will, power of attorney, and testamentary will should be prepared.
A representative payee is an individual or organization appointed by SSA to receive Social Security and/or SSI benefits for someone who cannot manage or direct someone else to manage his or her money. The main responsibilities of a payee are to use the benefits to pay for the current and foreseeable needs of the beneficiary and properly save any benefits not needed to meet current needs. A payee must also keep records of expenses. When SSA requests a report, a payee must provide an accounting to SSA of how benefits were used or saved.
The law requires most minor children and all legally incompetent adults to have payees.
If adult beneficiaries are not be capable of managing benefits SSA may gather evidence and determine there is a need to appoint a representative payee. We suggest contacting the Social Security Administration for a determination of whether a representatve payee is needed and how the situation may affect your benefits eligibility. Please see the contact information at the following link:
http://www.ssa.gov/pgm/reach.htm