I received the survivor benefit up until I graduated at age 19. She told me it all went to general bills and now all of the money is gone and essentially undocumented.
I noticed that I had to sign for the check when I turned 18 but she told me it had to go towards bills, but from what I've seen, the money should have only been spent on my costs and otherwise saved.
Is this misuse of funds?
I don't really want to get into legal problems over misuse if that is the case, but I do want to know what "can" be done in these situations and what the repercussions are. I'm utterly poor right now, unable to pay for college and about to lose insurance for my expensive and necessary medication, so I'm going to be extremely agitated if all that money was misused.
Potential misuse of funds by representative payee
Representative payees must file reports (SSA-623) documenting how funds were spent for a beneficiary. Presumably, your representative payee filled these out, although possibly not accurately. You possibly could request such reports, but I am unaware of how to obtain these.
The law requires representative payees to use the benefits properly. If a payee misuses benefits, he or she must repay the misused funds. A payee who is convicted of misusing funds may be fined and imprisoned. Proving this, however, may be problematic.
You may wish to contact Social Security (perhaps anonymously) for this.
http://ssa.gov/pubs/10076.html
http://www.ssa.gov/payee/bene.htm
Thank you
Thank you