Social Security’s Representative Payees: Time for a Tune-up

What the heck is a representative payee?

Social Security approves a family member or, less frequently, an organization to receive benefits on behalf of an individual who is old and infirm or has a disability. The representative is required to ensure that the benefits are being used to meet the needs of the person in their care.

To gauge how well the program is working, Travis Labrum at the University of Pittsburgh conducted lengthy telephone interviews with five people with a mental illness who receive their benefits through a family member and with seven family members acting in that official role.

He said that two out of three people who have family representatives managing their finances said they are fairly satisfied with the arrangements. But they also said the program could be improved, including finding a way to allow them to get more involved in the financial decisions affecting them to minimize disagreements with their representatives about how to spend the modest benefits.

Representatives are often assigned involuntarily to people with mental illness, heightening the conflicts that can arise. Labrum’s specific interest was the program’s effectiveness for people with a mental illness because so many – one in four who have a representative payee – are dealing with schizophrenia, depression, or other psychological disorders.

The beneficiaries he interviewed appreciated the advantage of having a family payee, rather than an alternative arrangement with a financial, legal or other organization. “She gives me emotional support,” one said. “I trusted her,” said another, “to have my best interests at heart.” And the payees said they felt good being able to help a family member “accomplish some of the goals.”

Several beneficiaries also said having a family member take care of their finances, rather than an organization, is less formal. “I see her every day, talk to her every day,” one said. Someone who switched from an organization to a family member said the organization “said ‘no’ a lot more than my mom does.” Family members also can help with non-financial tasks – childcare, housekeeping, visits to a therapist – that an organization would not.

But family relationships can get complicated, and some people complained their representatives were not permitting them to get involved in prioritizing their limited budgets. Social Security’s disability benefit for all recipients averages $1,537 per month, and the retirement benefit averages $1,905. The maximum monthly benefit under the agency’s Supplemental Security Income program is $943.

One beneficiary said she would “like to be more in charge” of buying things like a haircut or some new clothes. Another said flatly that his mother, acting as his representative, has too much control: “It’s hard for me to get toiletries,” he said, and “she just keeps controlling this and controlling that.”

Disagreements also arise when the representative gets involved in non-financial aspects of the beneficiary’s life. One complained that the representative “doesn’t like that I buy cigarettes,” and another was overly involved in helping to decide where the beneficiary would live, which “was a little irritating.”

These relationships can also be difficult for the representative payees. Like caregiving, the job can feel, as one said, like a “burden.” One beneficiary was even concerned about the stress his financial difficulties were placing on his family representative. “It was better when she didn’t know how much I made,” he said. “I could pretend that everything was better than it was.” One woman who was her mother’s representative told Labrum she quit doing that job because their “continuous conflicts” were damaging their relationship.

The representative payees also feel the weight of responsibility for making sure the person in their care is stable and healthy. “I try to make sure he doesn’t disobey what the doctors say because they’re the ones who initially got him approved” for benefits, one representative said. “Somebody’s always watching,” and “I definitely want to make sure he has groceries, he has his rent paid, and that he doesn’t partake in drinking way too much alcohol.”

Some beneficiaries felt that their representatives use their mental illness as justification for taking control. Financial abuse does occur in rare cases. But Labrum said two suggestions that came out of his interviews could improve most of the relationships: more training for would-be representatives and an informal process for beneficiaries to air their concerns, short of filing a formal complaint.

The way beneficiaries see it, the researcher said, family members are “less skilled or knowledgeable than organizational representatives about the rules and limits of representative payeeship.”

To read this study by Travis Labrum, see “Perceptions of Beneficiaries with Mental Illness and Family Representative Payees Regarding Satisfaction and Challenges.”

The research reported herein was derived in whole or in part from research activities performed pursuant to a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium.  The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not represent the opinions or policy of SSA, any agency of the federal government, or Boston College.  Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the contents of this report.  Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.