social security survivor's benefits

[Chaoster]

If you have children receiving these benefits, social security will send a form ever year for you to document what the money was spend on. My question is can you save the full amount for the kids or do you have to spend it? Will you lose the benefit if you save all the money because social security will say you don't need the money?

 

[TB'sWidow]

The documentation form is not very detailed but they reserve the right to ask for more documentation at any time. I am not in a position to save very much so I can not answer the second question. Mary

 

[mickeyplanner08]

I don't know all the details of the form, but when my mom was in that situation I know that she "used" the SS money and "saved" the life insurance. It's really all semantics. I don't know if she kept the exact amounts, but she had a spreadsheet and kept track of basic household expenses and assigned a percentage to the kids. Gas, electricity, phone, groceries, etc were all things that she figured were part of taking care of the kids.

 

[Eeyore98]

Money is money, isn't it? If you keep track of what you spend on the kids with "SS" money, and save "other" money that you would instead have spent on their needs, wouldn't that work out to the same thing?

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

I get a kick out of that form. Of course, the amount my children receive is not a significant amount, so I just start detailing about my son's sports fees, my daughters karate lessons, my older daughters makeup, clothes, etc. That is what the SS money is spent on. Any savings would be from other money

Then to top it off, my oldest turned 18 in December. She will not graduate until June. I get a form asking if I had saved any of the money for her and if I did, they wanted me to send it to them so they could give it to her....I was like Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Where is the logic in that? I called and spoke to a rep about that form.

I hate the thought though that those forms are needed because of abuses.

 

[Chaoster]

I just think its a pain to save the receipts for every little thing.

 

[vttkdmom]

I banked the insurance money and we use the SS money for living expenses. I have always checked the "we used it all" box and sent the form back in.

In speaking to other parents in this situation, I understood that if I saved a portion of this money for the kids, it would be turned over to them at age 18, and I had no say in this. I instead chose to use this to pay our living expenses and put the insurance money aside, in MY name, to be used for the kids colleges fund. This way my 18 year old would not be handed $$$$$$ and end up buying a sports car or something. My kids know the insurance money is there, for their college tuition and costs.

When the kids turn 18, and if they are still in high school, the SS will continue until they graduate, you have a form to fill out. The SS is sent directly to the CHILD at this point.

 

[MissManda]

My DH and I received custody of our nephew last year. His mother died in 2008 and he went to live with his dad. When we got custody, I had social security start sending me the survivor benefits checks. What I was told by the SS office was that it was okay to save the money but it had to be in an interest earnings account.

My former brother in law, who has custody of my sister's other two kids says that he had a co-worker who was getting survivor benefits for his children. He was saving all the money and reporting it each year. Well, all of a sudden apparently his benefits were reduced for each kid. He swears its because he was saving the money and not spending it. (I can't verify the truth to this story, but with SS anything this possible I guess).

To be on the safe side, we've kept track of expenses and will report it as being spent. Any savings that we put aside for him will be with our personal money. Of course, since we got custody of him, he's had a trip to the emergency room and multiple Dr appts for migraines, over $2,000 of dental work, and still needs braces and wisdom tooth extraction. So, that money is coming in really handy for us right now and its been pretty easy to track since we've had large payments. I keep up with this monthly, so if I need more expenses to match his monthly check, I allocate 1/3 of all grocery bills to him and any clothing or school supplies that I've purchased for him. I wasn't used to having kids in the house, so I was actually a little surpised how quickly it all added up.

It just dawned on me.....when does SS usually send the forms out to report how you spent the money? I just realized that I didn't get anything for 2011. We got two checks in 2011 and I received his 1099, but until I read this thread I hadn't even though about this form to fill out. Hopefully I haven't missed a deadline or anything. (That would be my luck).

 

[DOREEN1779]

You are allowed to deduct a % for housing, food, ect....So if you divide the total of those expenses by the amount of people living in the household, the number should always be higher then the benefit.

 

[DOREEN1779]

The Representative Payee report is sent the month before the anniversary of when you started receiving benefits so if your first benefit was 2/15, the form should appear sometime in the month of January. After that, it is usually the same time each year. You can fill out the form online, it is faster, easier, and you receive a confirmation. I never heard of a reduction in benefits, only a cost of living increase. Although, if someone was on permanent disability and had 3 children receiving benefits, if they had another child, that childs benefits would be taken from the other 3 children's amount. The award amount would not change, just how the $ is distributed. When a child ages out, the money again does not change in amount just how it is alllocated between them.

 

[Chaoster]

Has anyone ever have SSI ask for documentation on how the money was spent on the children?

 

[TB'sWidow]

So far No, Dd has been recieveing going on 10yrs

 

[lucigo]

I have always said that I spent it all. Started with 3 kids on it, down to one now and it has been 12 years. They have never asked for any kind of documentation. I am going to have to look into how its done when kids are homeschooled as my DD will turn 18 in Feb but not graduate from her homeschool program until at least May.

 

[starann]

When we had custody of my niece the woman at SS told us on the form to put that 'all money was spent' she said if needed we could provide electric/gas/cable bills to show we had spent money on her. Then again it was only $486 as her father was on SSD, when he passed away it went up. I don't have to tell you that $486 for a teenager doesn't go very far!!!