SS rep payee accounting question

[SecondCor521]

I'm now SS representative payee for my Dad.

I know I'll be asked to report once a year how the funds were spent.

He has several sources of income: a pension, investment income (via RMDs), and SS.

He has several expenses: AL rent, medical expenses, income taxes, gifts for his GF.

Since money is fungible and it all flows through one checking account, I'm not sure how SS expects me to properly answer that question. I could just as easily say that his SS pays his rent and his pension buys gifts for his GF as I could the reverse.

I think since his net SS << his AL rent and both are deposited and paid monthly, I can just report that his SS is going 100% towards his rent. Seems reasonable and simple.

Any comments or experience with if that will work?

[oldtimer]

If his rent is more than SS amount no problem. SSA just wants your to justify the total SS amount. It can be for the same expense categories every month. The checking account is just like a cup of coffee with cream. It gets mixed, but you can say X amount was for rent if it was for the full SS amount. Some was for Part B premium (healthcare) another SSA acceptable category. Gifts would not be an acceptable expense category for SS. If I remember that SSA is not looking for a breakout for all his income, just the SS amount. And these acceptable categories probably remain the same over the years, just dollar amounts get adjusted to match actual expense for these categories.

[SecondCor521]

Thank you! As I mentioned, his rent is well more than his SS payments net of Medicare Parts B and D, so I think I'll just do that.

I just pointed out gifts because I knew that was not acceptable and was trying to illustrate the fungible / coffee+cream aspect of things.