Can a Personal Care Home Serve as Rep Payee for Social Security Recipients?

Joe asked:


I have a relative that lives in a personal care home.

The personal care home seems to serve as my relative’s “rep payee.” My relative’s income consists solely of Social Security benefits along with a bit of income from working in a “sheltered workshop.”

I am not aware of how the home sets the monthly fee that it charges my relative. It is possible that the home charges far more to people who have greater income/resources available.

My relative happens to use a lot of over the counter medications, which aren’t covered by medicaid/medicare.

The relative doesn’t fully trust that the home is handling her finances correctly. Sometimes, she will be told that she has run up a few hundred dollars worth of “bills” by purchasing so many over-the-counter medications.

The relative feels she makes progress at paying off her bills for over-the-counter medicines only to find out that she again owes a bunch of money.
I don’t know the law, but the home may in essence be entitled to every single penny that the relative gets from Social Security and from the sheltered workshop, less a monthly allowance.

The bottom line seems to be that the relative seems fearful that she owes hundreds of dollars for over the counter medicines (it’s interesting that someone deals with her as if she has a line-of-credit). She also seems disconserted that she works at the sheltered workshop but ends up owing almost off of her earnings (thought relatively small in size) to the home.

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1. Product Review Blogs says:

   August 1, 2010 at 4:25 am

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   It is pretty common for a home to be the rep payee for SS, especially for someone who can’t handle their own finances and there isn’t a close relative to act as re payee.

   It sounds like you or some other relative, should set up a meeting with the home and go over the accounts just to ease your relatives mind. It is very likely that all of the SS money goes for the personal care home services.

   It is also very likely that the home is trying to discourage your relative from using so many over the counter products.