A Representative Payee is a person or an organization that the Social Security Administration (SSA) appoints a payee to receive Social Security benefits for someone who can’t manage or direct the management of his or her benefits. The Salvation Army (TSA) is an Organizational Payee. An Organizational representative payees can include social service agencies, institutions, and state or local government agencies.

For many beneficiaries, a family member or friend serves as the payee. But for a growing number of individuals, no one is available to fill this role. In an effort to ensure that beneficiaries who are unable to handle their own benefits have qualified representative payees to act in this capacity.

As the Organizational Representative Payee, TSA receives the check on behalf of the beneficiary and ensures shelter, food, medical care, clothing and education, as required by the Social Security Administration (SSA), are paid first. TSA’s role is well defined for by the Social Security Administration. In addition, we assist in paying off past debts, as individual finances allow. The beneficiaries would have difficulty maintaining their basics if they did not have someone and/or an agency monitoring their money.

The Salvation Army also makes every attempt to address past debt by making payment plans with anyone our Payee’s are in debt to plus we attempt to create a savings for emergencies that may arise. Also, we plan for unforeseen needs, such as a new bed, tickets to a concert, visits to family and so on.

We serve beneficiaries of all ages who reside mainly in Story County. In the event a person begins services with us but move out of the County, we do continue to work with them until a more suitable payee is found.  Our beneficiaries have a diagnosed disability such as intellectually disabled or who have a mental illness. In some cases, our beneficiaries are employed; some working few and others working several hours per week. We will manage our beneficiary’s wages as well however; this is not required by SSA.

All of our payee accounts are with Vision Bank. The Salvation Army also partners with the Social Security Administration, United Way of Story County, City of Ames, Central Iowa Community Services and various service provider agencies in and around Story County. We also work closely with landlords, utility companies and access to transportation agencies (CyRide, HIRTA, etc.), who our beneficiaries have accounts with to ensure a smooth payment of monthly bills. 

The Salvation Army is currently working with 60 beneficiaries and receives calls each month for beneficiaries being referred to or who need this service. We typically have a wait list of anywhere from 1 to 5 people at a time and because we are the only organizational payee in Story County, we are typically the first call for the Social Security Administration.

The best way to show impact is to provide an example of a success story. In 2012, a mother and her daughter were referred to The Salvation Army because they had been experiencing homelessness off and on for several years. This was due to poor money management, making poor choices and they had depleted many of the resources and kindness of the community agencies available to help them in Ames. Our office decided, on the request of the Social Security Administration, to work with them to help them begin to put their life back on track. The road was bumpy. They came to us with a great deal of debt (over $17,000.00 collectively) and had burned many bridges with landlords in Ames. In partnership with their son/brother, the two were able to find an apartment together in 2013 and have remained there since. There was a great deal of change that had to be made in their lives, a steadfast budget has had to be followed and because they live on Social Security income, it has taken a lot of time to decrease their debt however, over $5,000.00 has been paid off. They have been able to focus on paying off debt, have been timely on all of their bills, they have an emergency fund built up and they have even been able to go to concerts, the Iowa State Fair and have even become active in their church.