Why won't Social Security accept the POA my father executed prior to brain surgery?

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Why won't Social Security accept the POA my father executed prior to brain surgery?

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The Medicaid is handled at a State level and the durable POA might be accepted for many states will, but I can not speak to all states. SSA does not process Medicaid applications.

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Well if the SSA will not accept a Durable POA, then how do you file for medicaid when the parent is not able physically or mentally to file for themselves?

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It is true that a POA is not accepted unless you are appointed to ardian by the courts. I, however, was able to "request to be the payee". I had to go to the SSA to apply to be able to handle my mom's financial affairs. This took about to weeks to process. Her SS benefits are now mailed to me as payee for my mom. The account setup is in the same manner for direct deposit. The banks are familiar with such accounts, "Request as Payee" and will complete the direct deposit for you.

Full rights will only be given if you are Legal Guardian through the courts. Not everyone will accept a notarized POA including some banking institutions.

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I believe that the S.S. Administration feels that there is too much room for fraud in the appointment of a P.O.A. ( Attorney-in-Fact). First, I don't believe that there can be more than one. I may be incorrect on this.
An elder care lawyer should be employed and consulted frequently on all these issues.

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I do think that SS has a form that you can fill out that makes you the trustee or something like that. Do it before you need it as anything like that takes time.

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Unfortunately, the SSA does not recognize POA in any manner. I had to take my disabled 90+ year old dad to the office and sign a paper making me the payee! Although dad wanted a paper check or a banking account in his name only, they would not allow him to do so. Now, I have the burden of keeping a log of every bill that he owes, travel to doctor visits, food, care, etc., and etc. In my opinion, I think it has something to do with the debt that our country is in. SSA wants to make it as difficult as possible for anyone that is not able to handle their own affairs not to be able to collect the money that they paid into SSA all the years of their lives. I wish everyone going through this luck, because in my opinion, we are only going to see things get worse due to our country being in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression!

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This is such an interesting post, thank you for bringing this to our attention. What about that form they send us to sign from the SS to be able to handle their affairs, I have one and never sent it in so I must look into this. My Moms ss also goes into a joint banking account of ours which I use for her, this is okay I assume as its the only way to pay for her things. I am also her Trustee if that matters.

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I had trouble getting a copy of my mother's SS benefits letter that I HAD to have for Medicaid application. Same thing, they did not recognize POA. She has Alzheimer's. They sent her a letter at the nursing home where my sister who lives near her had her sign it then FAXed it to the Medicaid office. Same problem with VA. I am still trying to get her benefits letter from them. I had to make a call back appt. with VA, then he told me one form then said no, a different form. Neither one was specific to my problem. I tried filling out one requesting the info. My sister had my mother sign the form, then FAXed it to VA office. Haven't heard anything. I feel like it is floating in space somewhere. Now what do I do? I have no idea. And what happens when someone can't sign anymore? She has these benefits direct deposited into her accounts but Medicaid won't accept that. It is ridiculous and I agree that Congress should do something. If someone has POA and the person who consented to it is now incapacitated then they NEED that person with POA to be able to do these things for them. Insane bureaucracy!

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Did the same thing! It worked.

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Thanks Carol,
SSA told me I have to get a letter from his hospice doctor saying he is unable to do anything. That is in one town. Then I have to take the POA to the county courthouse with the letter & get it certified. It is in a different town. When all of that is done, I take it all back to SSA, in yet a 3rd town, & then they will appoint me as financial guardian. Full time caregivers have lots of time and energy to jump through hoops. It also means one has to hire someone to sit with the home bound while running around. Since I am the only caregiver locally, it is just ridiculous.
Because of this experience, I am taking my mother & husband, who are also disabled, to SSA the next time I go so they can appoint me their financial guardian before hand.
I think it is time for Congress to act. It is ridiculous to cause people these type of problems.

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Try going on-line to do whatever you need to do. When you do this on-line....well who is to know who types in whatever. Years & years ago, I went with my mom to close down 2 different banks accounts so that all was just in 1 locally based banking group (She had 3 different banks, just too much paperwork, too confusing). One of the old banks got her direct deposit of SSA and her annuity. I went on-line and just changed the direct deposit to the locally based bank routing number. Problem solved with no SSA face-to-face involvement. See if you can do the same. Good luck.

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Unfortunately, yes. I, too, was surprised to find out that Social Security doesn't recognize POA. I ran into that with the VA and other government agencies as well. You may want to ask the attorney who drew up the POA about options since your dad isn't cognitively able to handle these issues. I've always been baffled by these rules, but that's what they are. Good luck with this. We'd really like to find out how you get around this rule.
Take care,
Carol

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Why won't Social Security accept the POA my father executed prior to brain surgery?

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