An agent (payee) designated formally by an agency or court may conserve funds not used for a ward's (beneficiary's) current needs. If there is a change of agent, the former agent must return these conserved funds to SSA or other paying agency (e.g., Veterans Administration).

SSA or another paying agency may reissue accumulated funds to a new payee or directly to the beneficiary. The reissued funds may be paid in a lump sum or in installments and may be combined in a single check with a current month's benefits or an underpayment.

In general, conserved funds are a countable resource for the beneficiary while SSA or another agency is holding them. This is because the beneficiary:

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  owns the funds; and

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  is legally entitled to use them (or have them used on their behalf) for their own support and maintenance.

Conserved funds are not income to the owner when reissued because they are not new funds. Conserved funds are a resource and only change from a non-liquid to a liquid resource when they are reissued.

If a single check contains both reissued funds and new funds, the new funds that have not been previously charged for a prior month are subject to income-counting rules.

If SSA is holding conserved title II funds pending representative payee development and SSI eligibility is involved, the Program Service Center uses the Processing Center System (PCACS) to alert the servicing FO of reissuance of conserved funds.

Upon receipt of the PCACS alert:

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  advise the eligible individual or representative payee to contact the FO as soon as they receive the reissued funds;

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  control the case manually because the MBR/SSR interface will result in an automatic reduction of SSI benefits upon reissuance of the conserved funds;

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  correct the unearned income posted on the SSR by subtracting the amount of conserved funds reissued and inputting the correct amount of income for the month of reissuance.