[MsLady]

she got a call from the manager at the apartment complex she lives at, asking for rent early.

That's just stupid. If she had the money, she'd have it after the 1st. So paying early wouldn't make a difference.

[ApplegateRanch]

Since the rent is based upon her Soc Sec ‘income’, it might be phrased in such a way that if her month's check is zero, then her rent would be zero also; so try and get her (and others) to pay in advance, based on their last check's amount...with no refunds.

That would assume management was stupid enough to believe the hype, on top of being stupid enough to write the rental agreement that way. OTOH, it is a government funded operation....