As a disabled mom, I receive my benefits for myself and for my DD. I understand that her check is to be put in a separate account and to be used for her living expenses. Housing, utilities, food, clothes, personal items, spending money and such. My confusion in this is should the money be in a checking or a savings type account. Should it be withdrawn in lump sum amt. for her monthly expenses with documentation saved on how it's spent. Or is it necessary to write a separate check for each item . Does anyone know? I recently received a Representative Payee Report and am a little confused on filling it out. This is my first time on benefits and haven't had to ever deal with this before. I tried calling my SS office and they were already closed. This is starting to stress me out. I figured it all up on paper and her expenses came to $400.00 per month more than what I'm receiving. She and I went to the bank to open her a personal account and she had lost her social security card so they refused to open her account. I got on line and applied for her a new SS card so that I can get her a bank account. One thing that confuses me too is that since the cost of her monthly expenses is more than I receive, how much is feasible to show each yr. as saved. Does this make sense. I hope someone else receives benefits for a minor child and has dealt with this bureaucracy before and can give me some ideas of what they do and how to complete this form. As mentioned, I'm new to receiving benefits.

I received SS when my dad became disabled. We had a checking account set up, rather than a savings account. We had to account for everything we spent, but did not have to save any specific amount. We wrote checks for each individual thing, though I don't think we were required to - we did it just because it was easier to keep track of that way.

I'm not sure if you've checked this out but maybe it will be of help:

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10076.html

"First, you must make sure the beneficiary’s day-to-day needs for food and shelter are met. Then, the money can be used for any of the beneficiary’s medical and dental care that is not covered by health insurance, and for personal needs, such as clothing and recreation. If there is money left after you pay for the beneficiary’s needs, it must be saved, preferably in an interest-bearing account or U.S. Savings Bonds."

Thanks for the response. I got a hold of the SS line that is open til 7PM and they helped me a lot. I have been saving cash for her and will put it in a savings account for her as soon as new SS card arrives. I think she can then use this saved money for a car when she is old enough or for college. I am going to try to get an interest bearing account and contribute monies to it each month. I did go to the site that you posted and it helped to clarify this for me too.