(a) Explanation of representative payment. This subpart explains the policies and procedures we follow to determine whether to pay your benefits to a representative payee and to select a representative payee for you. It also explains the responsibilities your representative payee has for using the funds he or she receives on your behalf. A representative payee may be either an individual or an organization. We will select a representative payee to receive your benefits if we believe your interests will be better served by paying a representative payee than by paying you directly. Generally, we appoint a representative payee if we determine you are unable to manage or direct the management of your own benefit payments. Because the representative payment policies and procedures we use for the title VIII program closely parallel our title II policies and procedures, we provide cross-references to the appropriate material in our title II representative payment rules in subpart U of part 404 of this chapter.

(b) Policy we use to determine whether to make representative payment. For an explanation of the policy we use to determine whether to pay your SVB to a representative payee, see § 404.2001(b) of this chapter.