I transferred $200 from my checking account to my savings account and within
days I got a form from SSA to fill out concerning my assets. Actually DEPOSITING
MONEY can set off their alarms! The only deposits allowed are Direct Deposits
from The Treasury. Cashing a check without depositing it is OK as long as your
accounts aren't frozen waiting for the checks to clear. For instance, my savings
account allows me to cash a $100 check without putting a freeze on my account
for the amount of that check until it clears. Cashing rebate checks in excess of
$100 will put a freeze on my very small savings account for the amount of that
check until that check clears. If somebody owes you $5,000, better take it back
from them on a very small & long installment plan.
There is a "Midnite On the First Of The Month Rule", whereby you are allowed to
have over $2000 in your account AFTER any & all deposits for the month from The
Treasury. You have to spend it down such that there will be less than $2000 when
the next monthly checks roll around. Since SSI gets paid first to your account,
SSDI doesn't have the SSI Asset limit however, SSDI checks are figured based on
your SSI amount if you have both programs paying you. So if your SSDI check was
$150 payable on the 3rd of the month, and your SSI check put you over $2000 on
the 1st of the month, there is a discrepency on whether you would get paid on
the 3rd.
One other "Checking Account Beware" caveat is: SSA workers interpret the same
rules differently, or they are fully ignorant of the rules and they abuse you
thusly. You cannot depend on being able to use the Rule I mentioned in the
previous paragraph without having a lawyer handy. You may wake up on the first
of the month and find that you never got paid for the month because the deposit
they would have made would have put you over the $2000 limit and you would have
had to take the Gov't to court to fight to get it back, and that is just stupid,
like trying to escape Stalag 13.
You need a trust fund set up for you if somebody else has a load of money to
spare to you, and that requires a very specialized lawyer to set up and a
trustworthy person to act on your behalf. I have heard story after story of
other family members saying they will caretake the trust for the ill person,
only to find out that the family member reneged on it and ran off with the
money. Banks won't touch a trust fund as a trustee for you unless you have
$150,000-$250,000 in it, and they want yearly payments for doing it. Trusts can
pay bills for you like your cable bill, your phone bill, car payments, insurance
payments, renters' insurance; but they are not allowed to pay for rent, food, or
clothing. This could leave a disabled person homeless with a half a million in
the trust fund and kicked off of SSI because rent was paid for out of the trust
fund in an emergency situation, such as an involuntary eviction or an unforeseen
rent hike. Trust funds of $5,000 probably don't even exist.
I have tried to get my brother to NEVER be the trustee for any trust fund my
parents leave behind, because he is a staunch Republican who doesn't believe
people should be on this planet if they don't have a living wage from work. He
was probably involved in decision making at his company to reduce pensions and
cut health benefits, back in the mid 1990's. He doesn't care who gets how much
of what shaft, it is just reckless disregard for the safety of others.