Ethen Kim Lieser
Social Security Stimulus Check,
For the past couple of weeks, the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury have rushed to send out a total of one hundred twenty-seven million coronavirus relief checks under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
But as millions of Americans received their direct deposits and mailed checks and prepaid debit cards, roughly thirty million cash-strapped Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Railroad Retirement Board recipients in urgent need of financial assistance have been left on the sidelines.
After weeks of expressing their frustration on the matter, these vulnerable Americans, at last, have a specific date that they can look forward to.
In a released statement, the IRS and Treasury Department said that they “anticipate payments will begin to be issued this weekend to Social Security recipients and other federal beneficiaries who do not normally file a tax return, with the projection that the majority of these payments would be sent electronically and received on April 7.”
The chief reason for the holdup in the transfer of funds was due to the Social Security Administration (SSA) itself, according to a recent letter from the House Ways and Means Committee to the benefits agency, contending that millions of senior citizens were sitting empty-handed because the SSA didn’t turn over the necessary payment information to the IRS in a timely fashion.
The agency has since acknowledged that it has been reviewing, validating, and testing the payment records after receiving them from the SSA just last week.
“If no additional issues arise, the IRS currently expects to complete that work and to begin processing these payment files at the end of this week,” the IRS stated.
“Because the majority of these payments will be disbursed electronically—through direct deposits and payments to existing Direct Express cards—they would be received on the official payment date of April 7.”
In another recent letter, the House Ways and Means Committee wrote: “Some of our most vulnerable seniors and persons with disabilities, including veterans who served our country with honor, are unable to pay for basic necessities while they wait for their overdue payments.”
In response, SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul asserted that the agency was initially limited in how much it could progress based on how its role is defined by the Social Security Act and the terms outlined in the American Rescue Plan.
“Once we were free to move forward, we aggressively worked with Treasury and IRS to issue payments,” he said in a statement.
Saul added that the updates from the SSA help ensure payments are delivered to the correct bank accounts and addresses. The agency was also removing individuals who are now confirmed to be deceased.
“Social Security employees have literally worked day and night with IRS staff to ensure that the electronic files of Social Security and SSI recipients are complete, accurate, and ready to be used to issue payments,” he said.
Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.
