This person is blind and has many medical issues. Social security is her only income. She has no expenses now that she is living with me. She has Medicaid at the moment, but will loose it if she accumulates more than $2,000 in her bank acct. Do I charge her rent? We’re on assisted living lists (Medicaid), but no openings.
When she was in a facility (the independent living place) there was a copay needed to be paid to them from her SSA monthly income & the IL took the $ out as a matter of course. I bet this was taken from her SS income automatically, wasn’t it? If so, she allowed the facility to become her “representative payee” for her SSA mo income and she did paperwork with SSA for this. She now has to do another set of paperwork to have that rep payee cancelled and to have her SS deposited into her bank account (if she does not have a bank account, she will need to open one) and then probably have you named tp be her new “representative payee” on the account so you can pay her bills and write out checks for her.
Please be aware that any type of future custodial living & care type of placement a facility- like AL, a NH or any other congregate or group living situation- will have this as a part of the living situation. if she moves into an AL, they too will have a copay as a required part of her living there, Should she live with you, this will not happen, but it can take weeks for the process to catch up, so that her SS check no longer has the copay taken out.
Her caseworker needs to make sure the paperwork was done to show that she has moved and now living with family, so that the copay is no longer needed to be taken from her SS payment and paid to the facility.
This could be sticky & take weeks to get done. The old IL will have to refund the $ which in turn takes time. Also I’d suggest that you go over her old IL contract as to terms. Why? Well she may have exiting fees (cleaning) associated with her leaving her apartment.
Again If she allowed for the IL to become her “representative payee” for her SSA income, she will have to have that “payee” changed. SSA needs the individual to do the actions themselves and that can be really challenging. Go onto the SSA website and look up representative payee to see how all this runs and how you might be able to ask it work for her situation. Again you cannot do this for her, she has to do it herself. Good luck.
I can't add a thing, but to say, when you do any sort of "rent" I would be careful. She an elder law attorney as well versed in things as Igloo is! I heard here on forum that the wording on any "contract" for care is crucial. If instead of saying "rental" you say "shared living costs" in a contract, enumerating what they are paying for (living premises, utility bills, food) it is not taxable income for you. Rental is!!!!! So it is important to get info from experts. You don't want there to ever be any questions of her just giving you money, which would look like gifting.
It's all so impossibly intricate, isn't it? I surely do wish you the very best of luck. I know what experts cost, but in these things you just can't afford to do it wrong.