Dear Colleague,

This email is relevant for representative payees of individuals with an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if all of the following circumstances are applicable:

1) The person with IDD received one or more economic stimulus payments during the COVID pandemic. Those payments were issued as follows:

  • $1,200 in April 2020
  • $600 in December 2020/January 2021
  • $1,400 in March 2021

2) The bank account for the person with IDD exceeded the $2,000 limit due to the receipt of one or more economic stimulus payments, and 

3) The representative payee received an overpayment letter from Social Security that includes this type of information: "We are changing the amount of SSI that you were due for [certain months are specified] because you had countable resources worth more than $2,000."  In other words, the letter from Social Security says that there will be a penalty and reduction of SSI for the months that the SSI recipient's bank account had more than $2,000.

Social Security should not be lowering the SSI amount for any recipient whose bank account had more than $2,000, due to the stimulus payments.  If all of the above are applicable, then the rep payee should call their local Social Security office as soon as possible and explain that the bank account had more than $2,000 because of the stimulus payment(s), which should not have been viewed as a "countable resource."

Please see the Social Security Office Locator below.

You can enter your personal zip code into the Zip code lookup box, and click "locate". The address of the local Social Security office will appear along with the phone number.

Click on the image below to access the Social Security Office Locator:
If calling your local Social Security office does not provide a quick and satisfactory resolution to this problem, please let me know, and you should also file an appeal (Form SSA=561). To access the form to file an appeal, click here.

ABLE Accounts

Please note that there is an ongoing requirement that everyone who is a rep payee for a person who receives SSI must be certain that the individual with IDD has less than $2,000 in their bank account.  Representative payees who have difficulty keeping the bank account below $2,000 may want to consider opening an ABLE account.


  • See this link for the ABLE National Resource Center:  www.ablenrc.org 
  
  • The Arc of NJ Family Institute prepared an informative fact sheet on ABLE accounts, which may also be of interest. Click the image below to access a copy of the fact sheet:
Please share this information with others who may also be interested.

Thank you.

Bev 

Beverly Roberts
Director, Mainstreaming Medical Care
The Arc of New Jersey
985 Livingston Avenue
North Brunswick, NJ 08902
Direct line and fax: 732.246.2567
You are encouraged to share this information with others who may also be interested. However, if you are forwarding this, please delete the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of this email. If you do not remove the "unsubscribe" option and a person who receives your forwarded email clicks "unsubscribe," it would result in your name being removed from our distribution list.

Click here to see The Arc of NJ's COVID-19 information and resource page. 
Click here to access information from the State Of New Jersey on COVID-19.