I already recieve ssi, and I have a 16 year old son who recieves ssd payments taken from his fathers claim for back child support. Recently the district attorney levy his bank account and sent me back child support check of 29000.00 due to me for my son from his father (my ex)....this is 16 years of back child support owed to me....since ssi is my only income, do I have to report this back child suppport to ssi? Will they try to call it income? the IRS does not consider back child support arrears payments as reportable income, nor do they count ssi as reportable income, but will SSI try and take this money away from my son and me? Or can we keep it without reporting it since my son is not on ssi, only me, and his child support is for him, money I have already spent to support his whole life while his father paid nothing expect for the recent ssd garnished payments for sent to me for my son, and of course this lump sum arrears back child support. We live in the state of New York.

Please tell me what to do. I took all the money and put it in safe. I don't trust the banks. I want to buy my son things he has been deprived of all these years with that back child support. Can I do that? Will SSI be monsters about this and not let us get ahead?