Quote:
Originally Posted by finz
I understand that the program is working against you being able to pay off what you wanted too, but try to understand that the program was planned this way to help you to be able to collect the maximum benifits that you can. For many people, getting a big one time payment (say, roughly the $20 k you would be owed after the $6 k lawyer payment and almost $10k state repayment), if they didn't pay out $18,000 in one month, they would't be eligible for their SSI payment for the next month as they would have too much in assets.
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Actually, the retroactive SSI and/or Social Security benefits are excluded from the $2000 resource limit for 9 months.
They cynical part of me thinks that installments of only 3 months of benefits are a way of Congress holding on to money longer. If an SSI recipient is due $15,000 in retroactive benefits (lives in California or has been waiting for 3 or 4 years). How is it helpful to pay ($674 x 3) $2022 now, $2022 in 6 months and $10,956 6 months after that? If SSI recipients need help managing their money today, why does the law let them manage the rest of the benefits in one year? Never has made sense, but it is law.