Question about my grandma’s SSI review and her early dementia
My 91 yo grandma has an overdue SSI financial review. She has early dementia and she is hard of hearing. The letter for the phone interview came in the mail 1 week *after* the scheduled date, so she missed it (she probably didnt hear the ringtone or she answered and it wasnt a family member so she hung up we dont know) so i have to reschedule.
my question is, how can I make this easiest for my grandma? the phone interviews are confusing for her because of the extra interpreter (she speaks spanish) that sometimes is hard to understand and she asks us “what did they say?” and the interviewers dont like that and sometimes she gets a bit frustrated and confused. I read about “Representative Payee” but we don’t want to take her agency away from her since even though she has memory issues, she still has the mental capacity to ask us to take her to her bank every month, to buy her own food at the grocery store, to make meals (with supervision) and to buy her own clothes and meds that her insurance doesnt cover.
should I call SSA and ask for an in person interview? Will they let me do that (id be sitting beside her while making the call) or does she have to do the request herself? will they let a family member with her in the interview to repeat questions for her? she takes notes to remember things will she be allowed to bring notes to her interview? Will the questions be too complicated for her or just basic straight forward questions?