Situation: Suzanne Smith has been in foster care since 2000. Each month Suzanne's SSI payment
exceeds Suzanne's current needs so that Suzanne's conserved funds exceed the $2,000
resource limit in June 2002. Suzanne's payee, the Department of Social Services (DSS),
fails to report the excess resources. The excess amount is discovered in a March 2003
audit and in April 2003 DSS returns all of the conserved funds in excess of $2,000
because DSS believed Suzanne was overpaid.
Analysis: The conserved funds are Suzanne’s resources through April 2003. When the funds over
$2,000 are returned to SSA they are no longer Suzanne's resources because Suzanne's
payee intended them as a voluntary repayment of the overpayment caused by excess resources.
The $2,000 retained by DSS continues to be Suzanne's resource. SSA will compute the
overpayment and offset the overpayment with the returned funds. If the amount of returned
funds exceeds the overpayment, the remaining funds must be reissued to the payee and
will be Suzanne’s resource as of the first of the next month.