I'm trying to get disability for my health I have Gastroparesis and a little learning disabilities I got denied 2 times . On the Frist time because of my learning disabilities and the second time because of my health . Before I applied for the second time my step dad made out his will and made me POA on his banking account and everything else . Because my mom had passed away and my step dad trusted me to take care of everything because I live with him . So I tried to get disability because of my health because of Gastroparesis there is not a cure for what I have wrong with me . Went to social security office and they said that since I'm on my step dad bank account that they count it as my imcome and I don't even use the money I'm just on the account in case of emergency and have to make out bills . The social security office told us that before I could get disability that my step dad had to take me off his bank account before I could get disability my step dad doesn't have any one else that can do his bills if he gets sick or pass away because he doesn't trust the other kids . We are trying to find out what is the best way to get around this can you help us out .
Getting banking changed and being RP kinda solves a lot of problems.
About you, so you are trying to get SSDI? If that's the situation, SSDI seems to always, always be declined in initial & second application if the individual does their own application. To get it done with the least amount of issues & with success, I'd get an atty who does SS disability work. They are usually successful.
I'm kinda surprised that SSA didn't give you the info on SSA representative payee program. Normally I'm not at all a fan on becoming an RP but since you have placed yourself on SSA radar, you & stepdad need to get you to be his RP. Now SSA does NOT recognize DPOA, so stepdad will need to inperspn
If your step dad created the account as a joint account then everything you've heard is correct in that everything in that account is a mutual asset (not income). The best way to mediate this in my opinion (and I'm not an expert) would be to do the following:
1- Have him remove you from that account
2- Have him create a second, smaller account that you and he are "joint" on and setup a monthly transfer into that account that roughly equals his bills.
3- Have a Durable POA written up in case you need to access his other account at some point.
You can also likely accomplish the same thing through an Irrevocable Trust but you'd want to see an expert on that. They cost between $1,000-2,000 to create generally but would be a little harder to work with than what I'd described above.
I hope this helps and good luck to you.