Topic: Social Security Payments
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A customer wants to open an account for depositing a child’s social security payments, with a debit card to access account funds, but she did not bring us any paperwork. Should we open a UTMA account or a representative payee account, and will we be liable if the customer misuses the funds?
Representative Payee Accounts We would not recommend opening a deposit account for deposits of social security benefits without documenting the account owner’s status as a representative payee. Under the Social Security Administration (SSA) regulations, the SSA generally will select a representative payee for SSA beneficiaries who are under the age of eighteen, and only the…
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We have a representative payee account. The beneficiary of the account came into a branch and, without permission from the representative payee, withdrew money from the account in cash. Will the bank be held liable to anyone for this, and what steps should we take?
We believe that the withdrawal would be considered unauthorized and that the bank could be liable for the unauthorized withdrawal, if no defenses under the Uniform Commercial Code apply. Under the Social Security Administration (SSA) regulations, a representative payee is selected is selected after determining that the beneficiary of the payments is unable to manage…
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We have an SSA account with a representative payee who is very sick and unable to perform her duties as representative payee. Can she sign a power of attorney to allow her son to take over her representative payee responsibilities?
We do not believe that the Social Security Act would allow the mother to delegate her representative payee duties to her son, even through a power of attorney. The social security regulations require representative payees to inform the Social Security Administration (SSA) of changed circumstances “that would affect performance of his/her payee responsibilities.” 20 CFR…