{"id":58735,"date":"2023-09-13T17:15:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T21:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58735"},"modified":"2023-09-13T17:15:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T21:15:35","slug":"will-opening-a-joint-account-affect-my-disabled-fathers-ssi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/09\/will-opening-a-joint-account-affect-my-disabled-fathers-ssi\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Opening a Joint Account Affect My Disabled Father\u2019s \u201cSSI?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I live in Michigan and my senior disabled father lives in rural Kentucky. His income is part Social Security and part disability. I talked to a local credit union near his home and explained I would like to open a joint account. They said as long as he comes in with his ID it’s possible. My question is – will adding money to our joint account affect his SSI and disability? Signed: Caring Daughter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dear Caring Daughter:<\/em><\/strong> First, I need to clarify that there are two types of disability programs administered by the Social Security Administration \u2013 Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The acronym \u201cSSI\u201d normally refers to \u201cSupplemental Security Income\u201d which is a benefit for disabled senior adults (and children) who have very little income and very few assets. \u201cSSI\u201d is not Social Security income; rather it is a general benefit program jointly administered by the Social Security Administration and the State in which your father lives. In contrast, Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits are earned from working and are not affected by the recipient\u2019s assets, as are \u201cSSI\u201d benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From what you\u2019ve written, I assume that your father may have a small Social Security retirement benefit (because he has reached his full retirement age and SSDI isn\u2019t available after full retirement age), and he is also receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. If this is the case, although your father\u2019s Social Security retirement benefit would not be affected by opening a joint account at the credit union, his Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefit likely will be. As co-owner of the joint account your assets would count towards your father\u2019s \u201cSSI\u201d asset limit, and your assets, as well as any \u201cin kind\u201d assistance you otherwise provide, would likely put your father over the SSI income\/asset eligibility limit and result in his SSI benefits being terminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, although the credit union may be willing to open a joint account for you and your father, I\u2019m afraid that would result in your father losing his SSI (Supplemental Security Income) benefits, leaving him with only his small Social Security retirement benefit. You may wish to review the SSI eligibility information at this link: www.ssa.gov\/ssi\/eligibility<\/strong><\/a> or you could contact the Social Security Administration and ask to speak with someone experienced with Supplemental Security Income matters. For clarity, \u201cSSI\u201d assistance is jointly administered by the Social Security Administration and each State\u2019s Human Services department, and assistance available varies somewhat depending on the recipient\u2019s state of residence. Thus, since your father lives in Kentucky, you might also contact that state\u2019s human services agency to discuss your options for providing remote assistance to your father without jeopardizing his Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit: www.chfs.ky.gov\/Pages\/contact.aspx<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I live in Michigan and my senior disabled father lives in rural Kentucky. His income is part Social Security and part disability. I talked to a local credit union near… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":53085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2548],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58736,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58735\/revisions\/58736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}