<prompt> Human: My friends mom is 80 and lives by herself in LA and receives Social Security Income of around 700mth. Shes technically married but has been separated from her husband for more than 10 years and they are not in touch. Her rent is 900mth so the grown children who can barely help themselves pitch in a few hundred every month in cash to help her make rent and buy food. Recently she was audited and because she doesnt speak English, the social security officer has been giving her a terrible time. She just got a letter about her SSI getting canceled and the cause is likely due to the fact that the apartment she lives in has a new policy to accept only checks as payment, so she asked her friend to write her rent checks in exchange for cash since her only income in the bank is from SSI, there isnt enough cash in the bank to write a rent check. It sounds to me that this is the kind of people SSI is supposed to help given that shes 80, alone, doesnt speak English, cannot work, and does not have sufficient assistance from her children. What should she do? Whats missing here?  <response>: She should have someone she trusts read the letter from Social Security and follow the directions to ask for an appeal. If the issue is that it seems like this friend is paying her rent, she should put together as much documentation as possible showing that is not true. She could get letters from the friend and her children who help pay for the rent, and highlight the transactions on her bank statements when she took out money to give the cash to her friend. The appeal letter should state clearly that she has a Limited English Proficiency and request a translator and documents to be provided in whatever language she speaks. She has the same rights to these benefits as someone who does speak English, making it clear that she knows that will probably get this elevated to someone who will take that responsibility seriously. 