Social Security Payments and DPOA. Is all this really necessary?

In reading Alva's reply I must point out that my Mom was no longer required to pay income taxes because her income was primarly SS, the small pension only $2400 a year. She had CDs which was Dads insurance payout upon his death.

All my Mom owned was an old farmhouse worth, maybe 100k. That was her estate.

As payee for my nephews annuity, which is a government pension ran like SS, all that needed to be done was that the acct be set up with only the annuity deposited in it. I guess easier to see the money coming in and going out. I am suppose to get a form every year asking for an accounting but haven't got it in years.

I really don't understand why you can't have a joint account with an adult child. This is usually done so if something does happen to a parent, the child can pay the bills without needing a POA to do so. Is it the way its worded? As long as the child deposits none of their own money the Medicaid thing doesn't matter. I was never questioned about my name being on the accounts. It was Moms money if her name was on the acct.

I too was on Moms accts and her DPOA. I did not ask to be payee of her SS check. No, they won't recognize your POA if you call concerning the account. But you can set up an online acct. They have no idea if its Dad or not. I set up my DHs.

I never mingled Moms and my money. That causes big problems if Medicaid is needed. Since she had a house, even though she lived with me and then in an AL, I kept that address for her bills. Actually, I was unaware that I should be payee. I signed all her checks with my name and POA. Her bank statements showed the money going in and coming out. If I spent on her OP, I kept the receipts and wrote a check to myself writing the check # on the receipts and kept them in an envelope. Her small pension was not direct deposited. This was used for her personal needs and again I kept every receipt.

Like I said, I was in the dark about payee. But, I never had any problems paying Moms bills as POA. I placed her in an AL, paying all her bills out of her acct. When she entered LTC knowing that would be where she lived for the rest of her life, I allowed them to become her payee for SS and her pension. I looked at it as if there was a problem with either once she passed, the facility would have the headache not me.

There are probably loads of people who are not payee. As long as you don't change bank accts and have to inform SS of the change because of direct deposit, I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure your records are good if there ever is a question. There is really no way that SS knows who is paying bills on Dads SS. Think of the people scammed out of their SS and SS has no idea of it.

PS: I'm not COMINGLING my funds with his! All I do is pay his bills out of this one joint account.

I was a joint account holder with my dad. I was advised that I needed to become rep payee to handle his money and I ignored it.

I had records showing that all of my dads money went towards his personal needs and I did not think that social security needed an annual accounting of how his money was being spent. I set up online bill pay and withdrew money as my dad wanted it. I didn't really even need to be on the account but, I thought that it would simplify things, it didn't effect anything.

I never had a problem and I never became rep payee or needed a trust or anything else.

However, if your dad is looking at Medicaid in his future I do not recommend being on the account. I think it creates questions that are better off not being created.

Hmm. I guess I could use the trust checking account instead.. Thanks!
IRS form? geez, OK, I will look into that!

If his check goes into a TRUST account and you are now made Trustee of his Trust, as I was for my bro, then the SS check gets paid into the Trust account and you pay all bills that way. Otherwise you must go to SS and be made representative payee. It tells on the Social Security website exactly what you need to do that. You will be required to keep very careful records on how the money is spent. It used to be that you had to report once a year on these records; I believe that is no longer the case, but not certain. You will need to take letters of proof of incompetency from a medical doctor. Hauling in the Trust you are Trustee for and the POA papers for everything else is not enough and I found that out the hard way sitting and waiting for someone to show up from another office to tell me that.
You cannot have your father's money going into a joint account and you should NOT be co-mingling your money and his. This would make any help in future from medicaid, were it needed, impossible. There is a 5 year look back on the seniors expenditures from their assets.
Given that you don't fully understand the DPOA, I would pay a lawyer for an hour of time to find out exactly what records you should be keeping and how you should go about this. There are also books that will help.
I found that the first year, acting on my brother's behalf (at his request when he was diagnosed with probable early Lewy's Dementia, daunting. Everyone wants something different. Bad news is that you haven't even found out what the IRS wants. Yup, a whole other set of forms.