social security (disability) dependent benefits - what is the reason for asking about a bank account?

Question

My wife is currently drawing Social Security Disability benefits.

We have one child still in school. Our private disability insurance requires us to apply for dependent benefits on his behalf.

We did this via a telephone interview and received a form SSA-1372 with most of the information filled out. The form contains a question as to whether our son has a bank account.

This was not asked during the phone interview. But I'm curious as to why this question is even there. Is there a possibility he might need to "spend down" before qualifying for benefits?

Answer 1

As suggested by @RonJohn and @mkennedy, this is for direct deposit.

I resigned myself to making an attempt to contact our local Social Security office; I was surprised to get to a representative in under ten minutes. The person with whom I spoke confirmed that this information is used (only) for direct deposit of benefit payments.