My disabled adult son lives with his father in CA. His father has not reached full retirement age yet but retired early to care for our son. He is collecting SS and receives a small amount of money from California In Home Support Services to aid in his care/shelter. It has enabled him to remain in his home rather than have to live in a group home. It's the best solution, he is very severely disabled with autism. He receives a 1099 for this and has to report it on his federal income taxes as "other income", however, he is not taxed on it, as it is treated much like an insurance payment as it is to continue care for a disabled family member in the same home. SS recently decided that the money is income and that he has to be offset for it and will begin collecting it back. Can they do that?? When he first started collecting SS they said that then but then on review said that since it wasn't considered income for deeming purposes they did not consider it income, but now they are saying that earlier decision was an error. Our family is stunned and I'm afraid my son's Dad won't be able to afford to live on the reduced benefits and that my son will have to move into a group home if that happens. I can't find ANYTHING anywhere on this. What does the law say?

Hi,

Unearned income like you describe wouldn't affect any type of Social Security benefits that your son qualifies for, but unearned income can affect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. SSI is a needs based benefit administered by the Social Security Administration that's intended to be a last resort source of support for disabled, blind or aged (65+) people who have little of no income or resources.

I'm not familiar with the support programs administered by the state of California, so I'm not sure how they would affect your son's SSI payments if that's what he receives. But, if your son actually does only receive Social Security benefits and not SSI, state support payments like those you describe wouldn't have any adverse affect on his benefits. Assuming that your son's father is his representative payee, he may want to consider filing an appeal on your son's behalf (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf). That would at least cause your son's case to be reviewed by someone different than the person or people who decided that his benefits should be reduced.

Best, Jerry