§ 416.665. How does your representative payee account for the use of benefits?

(a) Your representative payee must account for the use of your benefits. We require written reports from your representative payee at least once a year (except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section and for certain State institutions that participate in a separate onsite review program).

(b) Your representative payee is exempt from the accounting requirement when your representative payee is:

(1) A natural or adoptive parent of a minor child eligible for title XVI benefits who primarily resides in the same household as the beneficiary;

(2) A legal guardian of a minor child eligible for title XVI benefits who primarily resides in the same household as the beneficiary;

(3) A natural or adoptive parent of a disabled individual (as defined in section 1614(a)(3) of the Act) eligible for title XVI benefits who primarily resides in the same household as the beneficiary; or

(4) The spouse of an individual eligible for title XVI benefits.

(c) We may verify how your representative payee used your benefits. Your representative payee should keep records of how benefits were used in order to make accounting reports and must make those records available upon our request. If your representative payee fails to provide an annual accounting of benefits or other required reports, we may require your payee to receive your benefits in person at the local Social Security field office or a United States Government facility that we designate serving the area in which you reside. The decision to have your representative payee receive your benefits in person may be based on a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons may include the payee's history of past performance or our past difficulty in contacting the payee. We may ask your representative payee to give us the following information:

(1) Where you lived during the accounting period;

(2) Who made the decisions on how your benefits were spent or saved;

(3) How your benefit payments were used; and

(4) How much of your benefit payments were saved and how the savings were invested.

[87 FR 35654, June 13, 2022]