Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-04-03138/USCOURTS-ca8-04-03138-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Jo Anne B. Barnhart
Appellee
Brent Jackson
Appellee
John M. Jeffords
Appellant

Document Text:

1

The Honorable Lawrence L. Piersol, Chief Judge, United States District Court

for the District of South Dakota, adopting the report and recommendations of the

Honorable John E. Simko, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of South

Dakota. 

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 04-3138

___________

John M. Jeffords, *

*

Appellant, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the

* District of South Dakota

Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Commissioner of *

Social Security; Brent Jackson, * [UNPUBLISHED]

*

Appellees. *

___________

Submitted: September 21, 2005

Filed: October 10, 2005

___________

Before BYE, McMILLIAN, and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

John M. Jeffords appeals from the final judgment entered in the District Court1

for the District of South Dakota affirming the denial of his request that his disabled

child’s benefits be paid directly to him, not through a representative payee. For

reversal, Jeffords asserts that he is able to manage his benefit payments because his

Appellate Case: 04-3138 Page: 1 Date Filed: 10/10/2005 Entry ID: 1961168
-2-

disability has healed. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the judgment of the

district court.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will make direct payments to a

beneficiary if the beneficiary shows that he is mentally and physically able to manage,

or direct the management of, benefit payments. See 20 C.F.R. § 416.655 (2005). To

support a request for direct payment, a beneficiary may provide a physician’s

statement or other evidence, showing that the beneficiary is able to manage or direct

the management of his funds. See id. 

Other than Jeffords’s unsupported assertions, we find no evidence in the record

that Jeffords is mentally and physically able to manage his benefit payments. Rather,

the evidence reflects the opposite: for example, his treating physician refused to

certify that Jeffords could manage his own affairs; his representative payee did not

consider Jeffords capable of managing his affairs because he desired to spend more

money than he had and frequently pawned items; he accrued credit card debt and had

two credit cards cancelled; and he threatened SSA employees and was arrested for an

encounter with a previous representative payee. Thus, we conclude the

Administrative Law Judge’s decision to deny Jeffords’s request for direct payment

is supported by substantial evidence. See Neal v. Barnhart, 405 F.3d 685, 688 (8th

Cir. 2005) (standard of review). 

Accordingly, we affirm. 

______________________________

Appellate Case: 04-3138 Page: 2 Date Filed: 10/10/2005 Entry ID: 1961168