Legal Question in Social Security Law in Colorado

Re: Rights of an 18-year old beneficiary

Before you do ANYTHING with this money, you need to find out EXACTLY what it is for and why you got it. Social Security generally pays first and explains later, so you should have received a letter within a few weeks of your receipt of the money. I see that your question is dated in March, but I just now received it in today's e-mail. You have probably received the letter by now. If you have not, you should contact Social Security and ask them to investigate why you got the money. The problem here is that if the money was paid to you in error, you could be liable for repaying the money. So before you spend it on anything, find out the facts.

I will defer for now the issue of whether you owe your mother anything out of the funds. Until you know what the funds represent, that question cannot be answered. In some cases if the funds were originally payable to your mother as a representative payee for you, you and she may have to account for their use to Social Security. That is, you would have to show that they were spent for your food, clothing, shelter, etc. But again, until you have the facts, we really don't reach this issue.

Hope this is not too late to help.