In windfall offset computations, when a fee agreement has been approved, the representative's
fee (both the portion determined based on the title II past-due benefit and the portion
determined based on the title XVI past-due benefit) is used to reduce the title II
income (GN 03940.050C.7).
A problem can occur when the fee amount used to reduce the title II income exceeds
the fee amountwithheld by the title II system. The problem will occur when this is true and the representative
fee adjustment recomputation is completed before the title II prior month accrual
(PMA) check is paid. Most of these cases will involve fee agreementsalthough it is possible for this problem to occur in fee petition cases. When the authorized fee in a fee petition case is known before the PMA is paid
AND that fee exceeds the title II withheld amount, this problem can occur.
Under the policy for windfall offset, some or all of the PMA check is noncountable
income (NCI) for SSI eligibility/payment computation purposes since it has already
been considered in the windfall offset computation. See GN 02610.005.C.12 for the definition of NCI.
In such circumstances, the field office will reduce the title II income, starting
with the first month of the income, by the amount of the representative's fee, delete
the offset computation and transmit the new (reduced) “W” postings to the Supplemental Security Record (SSR). See SI 02006.200 ff. for a description of the method.
The SSI system will use these new “W” postings to perform an offset computation and to determine the amount of NCI which will not be correct in the circumstances described.
The NCI will be “short” by the amount of the nonwithheld representative's fee—generally, the portion determined
based on the title XVI benefits and/or the amount withheld from the auxiliaries' PMAs.
NOTE: The situation described here is in addition to the situation described in SI 02006.201.A. when some or all of the fee adjustment occurs before entitlement to SSI.