Customer recently made a withdrawal that was out of the normal behavior for this customer. So, I followed up with the branch staff concerning the withdrawal (approx. $7,000). The teller stated that he took this money out of his account for Social Security reasons. As I was gathering more information from the teller, she stated that people with Social Security have to keep their accounts around a certain threshold or they could risk getting their Social Security taken away from them. I have not really dealt with this in my couple of years in BSA - would this be considered suspicious behavior?

He is technically hiding money to continue to receive SSI benefits.

I reviewed the account and the customer do not have any additional income, he appears to just be really good managing his money that he gets from his SSI benefits.

Is he receiving regular SS payment or SSI payments?

your teller stated this? or the customer stated this?

He receives supplemental social security benefits.

For clarification - The customer told her that he was taking money out of his account, so that he does not lose his social security because of what funds were in the account.

Back to my question. What type of SS payments. Warren Buffet collects SS payments.

Original message says SSI at then end. I have had members do this at my FI also for SSI qualification. I was told it was not allowed if we knew why they were 'hiding' the money.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) asset limits are also supposed to include "cash in hand". So if he is taking out cash to "hide" assets needing to be reported, he is committing fraud. However, if the only income is SSI, it would not be considered "earned income", I'm not sure how that plays into reporting assets.

SSA.GOV/SSI/ I would be checking directly with the source for information on reporting suspected abuse.

Social Security just doesn't get "taken away" from anyone, based on their checking account balance. I would be concerned that this customer is talking to "someone"; sounds like makings of some scam.

SSI does. It is based on their 'resources'.

"You may be able to get SSI if your resources are worth $2,000 or less. A couple may be able to get SSI if they have resources worth $3,000 or less."
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/ssi/?tl=0

This is the from the 2018 Rep Payee pamphlet (those are SSI benefits):

A special note about SSI beneficiaries
To continue receiving SSI, a beneficiary must not have resources worth more than $2,000 ($3,000 for couples). We don’t count all resources; however, some items you buy could cause the beneficiary to lose their SSI benefits. Any money you don’t spend could also count as a resource. Check with us before making major purchases for an SSI beneficiary.

I may be mistaken, but this sounds like a lot time and resources may be allocated to an account that has minimal balances.

The bank doesn't do all that. It's the Rep Payee (if there is one) or the beneficiary who's attempting to manage resources to maintain eligibility. The bank only got involved because it saw the $7,000 withdrawal as an outlier, and is following up.