Pro Bono Attorneys Needed to Serve as Social Security Rep Payees

The recent issue of Bifocal, the bi-monthly Journal of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging has a great line-up of articles, including a piece by Social Security Administration (SSA) specialist Janet Truhe on Social Security Seeks Pro Bono Lawyers to Meet Need for Representative Payees.  She notes that many disabled individuals do not have family members or other trusted persons who can serve as their agents for receipt and management of Social Security benefits.  Anticipating the need for “rep payees” will continue to grow as boomers age, SSA is recruiting attorneys to serve: 

Recently, the agency announced the implementation of a pro bono pilot in the State of Maryland (where SSA is headquartered), which is aimed at expanding the pool of suitable representative payee candidates statewide. SSA believes that partnership with the legal community for this purpose is a natural fit….

 

One particular advantage of this pro bono opportunity is that any attorney, regardless of his or her specialty, can serve as a representative payee with SSA providing any needed assistance. SSA has created a web site for attorney volunteers with training and other information about the role of a representative payee. Any licensed attorney in Maryland, or in neighboring jurisdictions, who would like to volunteer as a representative payee for a beneficiary residing in Maryland can go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/payee/probonopilot.htm and complete an online registration form. SSA will send the volunteer attorney’s contact information to the servicing local field office. When SSA needs a representative payee for a particular beneficiary, that field office will contact one of the volunteer attorneys and make an appointment for the attorney to come in for an interview and meet the beneficiary.

Hat tip to ElderLawGuy Jeff Marshall for pointing out this SSA recruitment effort.