Social Security Representative Payee - MAKE YOUR CHOICE TODAY

[GailL1]

If you have set up your mySocialSecurity account you are able to name your choice of a Representative Payee (RP) then each year the SSA will send you a letter stating who they currently on file for you.  

You can change it at any time.

SSA does not recognize your POA even if you have one - they need to have this RP on your file.  The RP acts on your behalf in managing your SS benefit when for some reason you can’t.    This goes for managing your benefit to your benefit to being able to change your address on the SS file or talk to them about any SS matter.

So do it today - set one up.  

If they don’t have this named authority, then if something happens it just makes it really hard for someone to act for your - and in some situations, the SSA could actually appoint someone or some institution to handle your affairs.

SSA.gov - Identify someone to manage benefits for you

You also need to do a designate on Medicare - the person you want to be able to talk to Medicare about your health claims or plans and to act for you if you for some reason can’t.  Do it online on your Medicare account or submit a form to CMS for this purpose of naming your designate.

CMS.gov - FORM  1696

[fffred]

@GailL1 

Thanks for the tip, GailL.  One that I took advantage of.

I hadn't specified a RP previously but it seems like a good idea to do so now.

I was really surprised by how simple this was, doing this on the SSA website. It only took me a minute or two to make the designation and then that was it. Done.

In fact, it seemed TOO easy. I was expecting there to be more information/identification required. Such as the RP's SSN, or at least their address...I did need to provide a phone number (and they ask if it is Domestic (US) or foreign), but no address was required.

As FYI for others, I did need to select an option to show the relationship of the person designated as RP, there are almost a dozen options to select from, such as spouse, parent, child, neighbor, etc. And you can even select some option (which escapes me at the moment as to how it is phrased) to the effect of "no comment" on the relationship, for those privacy-minded individuals.

I was anticipating some additional red tape due to my residence being located outside the US, but nothing special came up.

Now if only correcting my home address was so simple. The SSA keeps spontaneously mangling my home address, corrupting words, spontaneously changing names of city, street, etc, into some unrecognizable hash. Even neglecting to put the country name in. How is the USPS supposed to even mail this outside the US when there is no country indicated? But kudos for the USPS, they do, and I always get my SSA mail (except for the ones that I don't but don't know about? haha).

Oh, and next for me is to put in my computer calendar an annual reminder to look for SSA form 7162 each year so that I don't miss it (or it misses me due to incorrect address) and my benefit is suspended. (7162 is a form for expats intended to assure the SSA that "yep, I'm still alive")