I Recently Moved My Disabled Adult Brother In With Me.

We live in Florida. Without giving too much unnecessary backstory, In November of 2024, i decided to ask my mom if i could take my little brother in to live with me since she was doing some illegal shady manipulation with him. Opening credit cards in his name, having him co-sign on her lease, etc. Essentially taking advantage of his disability and clean credit history. I’m in the process of having him removed from this stuff but have some related questions.

My brother is 23 years-old and has been receiving disability most of his life. My mom was very irresponsible and was using that on herself, even when he became an adult. As far as i understand, that is his money, and it is to be used by him for his necessities. From what i understand, since he’s been on disability from his childhood, my mom told me that the disability income is based on her income since he is her child and was living with her.

For now, she’s been compliant in sending me his SSI check in full every single month so he could pay for his rent among other things. I would like to change all of this around so that his disability is in his own name, goes to his own bank account, but i’m worried that because he lives with me now, they will base his disability check on my income, even though he is financially independent (relatively speaking) and i rarely come out of pocket to support him financially. I’m renting a spare room out to him for $250/month and the rest of his money is his to spend (with my advice and supervision, of course) on necessities like dental copays and food, and occasionally things that he wants for enjoyment like a new video game.

My mom is trying to convince me to eventually obtain guardianship over my brother so that I can become his new “caretaker” and claim him as a dependent and such. However, i don’t know that i want to claim him as a dependent. I make more money than my mom at about $60k/yr where she only makes ~$35k/yr and i would hate for him to lose some benefits just because im his legal “guardian”

Is my mom full of it when she says that his disability is based off of her income? If that is true, is there a way to get him on disability in a way that he receives his check directly? I don’t really trust my mom to continue sending his money long term, and i can’t financially support another adult off of my income.

This is all extremely new to me, and i may have left out some critical info, but please if anybody is familiar with tax law/disability/SSI and can explain what i should be doing as an adult “caretaker” for an adult with a disability it would be greatly appreciated. TIA!