Dealing with SSA's Installment Plan

SSA imposes an installment plan on the delivery of lump sum SSI past due benefits. Only six months' worth of past due benefits are released at a time. To ensure that an SSI recipient can pay the entire legal fee and other bills out of the first installment, he/she should gather all outstanding debts for necessities (food, clothing, and shelter) as well as the outstanding legal bill and present them as a request for an advance on the second installment.

If the attorney trusts the SSD client to pay the legal fee from his or her own lump sum of past due benefits, the attorney may want to waive withholding on the bottom of the Appointment of Representative Form 1696. Care should be taken, however, because SSA has sometimes interpreted this provision to defeat the attorney's right to use the streamlined fee agreement process at all, forcing the attorney to file a fee petition.