My understanding is that the payee is just a formality. I'm on SSDI, when it was approved, they told me to bring in someone who would be my payee also. What they told me is that I needed to have someone who could access my money in case I could not...for example...if I were to be inpatient and my rent needed to be paid. My partner is my payee and my checks are directly deposited into our joint account. Other than the fact that her name is on the account, and on a couple spots in my SSDI file, she has nothing to do with my SSDI.