Representative Payee Home

Use your my Social Security account to advance designate.

Advance Designation of Representative Payee

To help protect what is important to you, we offer the option to advance designate a representative payee. Advance designation allows you to designate up to three individuals who could serve as a representative payee for you if the need ever arises.

We offer advance designation to capable adults and emancipated minors who are applying for or receiving Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income, or Special Veterans Benefits. If you become unable to manage, or direct others to manage your benefits in the future, you will have peace of mind knowing that someone you trust may be appointed to manage your benefits for you.

We only contact advance designees if we need to find a representative payee to assist you in managing your benefits. We will first consider your advance designees, but we still fully evaluate them to determine their suitability at that time.

Advance designation is not

• An indication of your capability to manage or direct the management of your benefits.


• An indication of someone's suitability to serve as a representative payee.


• An appointment of a representative payee.


• Power of attorney.
  

How to Provide and Update Your Advance Designation of Representative Payee

You can submit and update your advance designation request when you apply for benefits or after you are already receiving benefits. You may do so by direct electronic submission through your personal my Social Security account, or by contacting us via telephone at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or your local office. We will ask for your designees' names, telephone numbers, and, if you choose to provide it, their relationship to you. You will receive a notice each year listing the names of the individual(s) you have chosen to advance designate along with reminders regarding how to update this information.

If we deny your claim or you stop receiving benefits, your advance designation will remain in our records, so we can access it again if you reapply for benefits, file an appeal, or begin receiving benefits again.

For more information, see What is Advance Designation?