My son receives benefits because his father is on disability. When he turned 18 I received a letter saying that as his payee I would have to return all the money I had saved for him with interest so they could send him a check. If you get a letter like this, it is better to ignore it. I took the money I saved to my local Social Security office on November 1, 2010. Here it is March 31, 2011 and 2 months of calls later and he is no closer to getting back the money I turned in. I can call my local office but they only know that they sent the money in. They say I can't call the payment center directly and when they call they don't get any answer. He was counting on this money to pay for his college but now we are going to have to take out loans and pay interest until he gets the money back, if he ever does.
Don't try and be a good citizen and obey the rules. They are there to rip you off.
Return of money saved
I'm not sure if the above post pertains to SSI disability payments. If so, note the following regarding the return of SSI disability payments to a representative payee :
If you receive SSI you also must tell your payee if you:
* Get money from another source;
* Apply for help from a welfare department or other government agency; and
* Save any money.
If your payee does not report any of the above actions to Social Security, you may be paid too much money. In that case, you may have to return the money you were not due and your payments may stop. If we determine that either you or your payee intentionally withheld information in order to continue to receive payments, you or your payee may be prosecuted criminally.
Note the phrase "prosecuted criminally".
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10097.html#ssi