discharged 07-15-16, nursing home said social security check would follow her, went to social security office and they said her monthly check was deposited in the nursing homes acct. Went there today to see where her money is and they told us that they email corp to get a check but has not heard from corp,I told them, she needs this money to live on and I think this is abuse of the elderly.
There shouldn't be a problem, POA never entered into it when they (SSA) assigned me as "rep-payee" for my husband.
At the very least, have them send the check to the new address. Then, either they will ask you to be rep-payee, or you can take the check - depositing it in her bank as POA.
Your post sounds like this was the situation....NH is rep payee.
Now one sticky in this is that SSA does not accept a DPOA / MPOA; so if you are her DPOA you on your own cannot change where her SS monthly goes only she can put that request in. RP requires paperwork on you & your family members part and has reporting requirements to safeguard the $.
? For you? - how was she paying for her NH stay?
And was she required to do a 30 day advance notice to move?
The NH can withhold whatever funds to make her account a zero balance. If she was in on private pay, the cost will likely be way way over a monthly SS check, so no $ to refund. NH can prorate for days she was actually there but most private pay contracts require a 30 day written notification; so if she moves out at day 20 she still is responsible for 10 more days rent & it can be withheld from funds in her account.
If she was in the NH & on Medicaid, she was required to do a copay or SOC (share of cost) of all her monthly income to the NH except for a small personal needs allowance. PNA varies by state - my moms was $ 60 a mo. If your family member signed off for NH to get her income (which it sounds like she did), the NH put the PNA into a separate trust fund in her name at the NH. It would have built by the PNA $-amount each month. The PNA is used to pay for things not covered by Medicaid or other insurance (like beauty shop, toiletries, phone, cable) & its automatically deducted. The PNA can be placed on "hold" till her account is zero'd out. I think it can be used to pay on a delinquent bill if need be as well, this tidbit would be in the admissions contract. There should have been paperwork as to who could sign out $ from the PNA with a name & address for the payee if she died while a resident. My point in this is that the PNA trust fund $ could be sitting at the NH as well & she or you may have to in writing request those funds sent as well to her.
Review the admissions contract as its going to read in detail what's what.