How to Change the Payee for Disability Insurance

A representative payee for disability insurance is someone who manages money for the individual recipient. A payee is appointed when the recipient is a minor, declared legally incompetent or physically or mentally incapable of managing his own income. At times, there is a necessity to change payees due to mismanagement, relocation of one or the other of the parties involved, personality conflicts or other life changes. It is a simple process, but there are some guidelines that need to be followed.

Instructions

Changing Your Payee

1. Write a letter to the Social Security Administration requesting a change. The two reasons a payee can be changed are if your current payee is misusing funds or if there is a more appropriate payee available. Be sure to include evidence to support your statement.

2. Ask your replacement payee to apply to be a payee. In order to do this, she must call the Social Security Administration office and request a SSA-II (Request to Be Selected as Payee). This form is not available online.

3. Your replacement payee should have the following information gathered before applying: address, checking account information for direct deposit, disability, name and address of current physician, address, original documents explaining the relationship of the payee to you, and a plan of how your new payee and yourself will be communicating about your financial needs.

4. When picking your replacement, be aware that there are some stipulations on who can be a payee. People who themselves have received benefits through a payee or have been convicted of violating the Social Security Act cannot be payees.

5. Allow time to complete the process. If you don't hear anything within a reasonable period of time (a couple of weeks to a month), call and follow up on the letter to change payees. Remember that you and your potential new payee should make copies of any letters and applications sent to the Social Security Administration. Once they approve this change, the benefits will be deposited in your payee's checking account on the date of the next benefits check.

Tips & Warnings

• There are numerous Social Security offices around the country. To obtain the correct address and phone number, call 1-800-772-1213.

References

• Contact information for Social Security Administration
• Description of Representative Payee and how to become one

Resources

• Information on Social Security Benefits and Representative Payees