Hello Larry,

This is a question for a freind. She is receiving SSDI. She is low income and the state pays a portion of her didability benefits. She recently had to do a renewal on her benefits by phone. The last time she did a renewal she owned an old mobile home in a trailer park where she paid space rent. They asked if she still lived there. She told them no she was living in an apartment with her daughter. They wanted to to know what happened to the mobile home. She told them it was falling apart and she couldn't maintain or fix it so she gave it to her daughter. Her daughter put it in her name fixed it up and sold it for $20,000. She didn't receive any money from the sale and it would have sold for much if it hadn't been repaired and a lot of money put into it. They sent her a letter saying since she had the $20,000 in her Wells Fargo bank account they were cutting her off. She called and she explained she didn't not have any of the $20,000. They told her to get bank statements for cetain months. She did and took them to the social security office. A worker at the office informed her even though the mobile home was not in her name at the time of sale they are going to cut her benefits starting in June 2017 until the $20,000 is paid off! Can they do that. She is in very bad health. She was born with her intestines and organs on the outside of her body and is going to have her 30th surgery on May 12th. There is no way for her to take care of herself.
Thank you so much for any advice you can give. There is no money to get a lawyer.

Hi,

Just to clarify, SSDI is an acronym for Social Security disability benefits, which is an earned benefit based on Social Security taxes paid by the disabled person. There is no limit on the amount that a person receiving SSDI can have in the bank, and the sale of property would not affect their benefits.

It sounds like your friend is receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is a needs based program administered by Social Security. SSI is intended as a last resort source of income for people who are at least age 65, disabled or blind. In order to be eligible for SSI, an individual can't have available assets of more than $2,000, excluding a house and car. The value of your friend's mobile home would have been excluded from counting as an asset for SSI purposes while it was her primary residence.

I'm assuming from your description that the $20,000 in proceeds from the sale of the mobile home was in a bank account in your friend's name, which makes it her money according to SSI regulations. Even if the bank account is a joint account in her name and someone else's name, the money in the account would be assumed to be available to her to use for her care and maintenance. And, since the amount is more than the $2,000 asset limit for SSI eligibility, it would likely make her ineligible for SSI.

I don't have enough information to know if there is a solution to your friend's problem. She can file an appeal (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf), but I don't know if that will be successful given the circumstances you describe. You may want to do some research on SSI to see if you think an appeal is warranted. For more information on SSI, refer to Social Security's website: https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/.

Best, Jerry