Several news agencies reported this week that the latest round of stimulus checks were issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and that most of the latest recipients are also Social Security benefit recipients who have been wondering whether they would ever receive their checks.
Members of Congress previously pressured the Social Security Administration and inquired why many Social Security beneficiaries had not received their latest stimulus payment. The payments are issued by the IRS, but the IRS indicated it was waiting for needed information from the Social Security Administration before it could start issuing the checks.
This seemed to be an issue where Social Security was not on the ball so that these payments could get out to vulnerable Social Security benefit recipients in a timely manner and blame should fall on the leaders of the administration, namely current Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul.
According to a story from CNBC the breakdown of the payments include “more than 19 million payments representing more than $26 billion went to Social Security beneficiaries who neither filed 2019 or 2020 tax returns nor used the IRS non-filer tool last year. That includes people who receive Social Security retirement, survivor or disability checks.
In addition, more than 3 million payments — or about $5 billion — were issued to Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries. Approximately 85,000 payments worth more than $119 million went to Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries.
The new batch also included more than 1 million “plus-up” payments amounting to more than $2 billion for people who are eligible for additional money now that their 2020 tax returns have been processed.”
Unfortunately many veterans have still not received their stimulus payments. CNBC reported that the IRS plans to start processing stimulus payments to Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who do not normally file tax returns and that those payments will go out April 14, 2021.
