Get Gephardt helps restore West Valley man’s Social Security disability payments

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Jeff Davis gets disability payments from the Social Security Administration. At least, he did up until his mom passed away in December.

Jeff is unable to manage his payments, so his mom had served as his payee. Jeff’s dad, Russell Davis, has been trying to get those payments reinstated ever since.

“They told us that we had to get me as his payee,” Russell said.

Seems like it should be as simple as swapping out his name for his late wife’s as Jeff’s payee. After repeated calls and hours on the phone and appointments with Social Security representatives at the Salt Lake City office, Russell said they have not been able to restore Jeff’s payments.

“He told us right to our face, ‘Everything is changed. You’re now the payee and he should be getting his check,” Russell said of the meeting.

Despite many assurances it will all get straightened out, Jeff is still waiting for his payments.

“We’re in a day and age of computers,” Russell said. “Everything should be almost immediately and it’s taken since first December to try to get this settled and I can’t.”

Sick of wrestling this on his own, Russell decided it was time to Get Gephardt.

We reached out to the Social Security Administration on Russell’s and Jeff’s behalf through the agency’s media relations team.

Less than a day later, all the money Jeff was owed showed up in his bank account.

We asked the Social Security Administration how long a change in representative payees usually takes, and if there is anything families can do to get ahead of a change and maybe avoid this sort of hassle? They did not answer those questions, just saying that they were working it out in Jeff’s case.