Social Security Recipients WILL get Stimulus Checks
WASHINGTON, DC, Mar 31 — “It’s the ONE question nearly all Social Security recipients are asking: Will I get a Coronavirus stimulus check? If yes, do I get one even if I haven’t filed a tax return in recent years? The answers are YES and YES!, says Jeff Szymanski, political analyst at the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC].
The “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act) passed by Congress provides for substantial stabilization of America’s economy during the unprecedented medical crisis now sweeping the country. The Act provides critically needed funding in key areas like expanded unemployment benefits and specific aid to many business segments facing extraordinary disruption, along with financial relief payments to most Americans, subject to income guidelines below.
“Under the Act’s provisions, Americans having a valid Social Security number will receive direct cash assistance, specifically including those who receive welfare and Social Security benefits. Relief payments will be $1,200 for individuals, $2,400 for couples, and $500 per child, for individuals with incomes at or below $75,000 ($112,500 for heads of household) and couples with income at or below $150,000. Individuals earning up to $99,000 and couples up to $198,000 will receive a reduced payment, prorated according their higher income level,” according to Szymanski.
The procedural details on how the approved payments will get into the hands of recipients are still being finalized, but these are the general elements:
· According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, most payments should be in the hands of recipients within three weeks
· Eligibility for cash payments is based on income as reported in your most recent income tax return (note: adjusted gross income is the figure used)
· If you did not file tax returns and are receiving Social Security payments, the IRS can use your Form SSA-1099 Social Security Benefit Statement or your Form RRB-1099 Social Security Equivalent Benefit Statement to send your check
· If you have received a tax refund in the last two years by direct deposit, that’s where your money will be sent. If not, the IRS will mail a check to your “last known address”
· The IRS will mail a notice confirming distribution of your payment, along with IRS contact information if you haven’t actually received the confirmed payment
· You do not need to do anything in advance. For many recipients, the IRS has your banking information and will likely execute direct transfers to your account
AMAC’s sister organization, The AMAC Foundation, updates a site five days a week entitled The Social Security Report. For the absolute latest daily information on this vital program, visit www.socialsecurityreport.org. Many of this week’s headline and latest news posts on The Social Security Report deal specifically with The CARES Act (Stimulus Bill), and those seeking more detailed information will find it a valuable resource.
But to reiterate, reports Szymanski, “YES, Social Security recipients are eligible and need do nothing at all to receive their $1,200 per person relief payments due them. If you are required to file a tax form, it is likely that having done so already may speed up delivery of the payment.”
2 Responses
Will they put the stimulus money on the EBT card
I do not want the IRS getting access to my Social Security direct deposit information and I’d rather the Treasury Department be in charge. I’m currently disabled(and over 60) and would feel very insecure with the IRS being allowed access to any of my banking information.
This is because for the last year that I was able to work the IRS made it so easy to file taxes online that someone else illegally obtained my Social Security number and illegally filed for my tax return online and I had to go to my senator to obtain my federal tax return.
I have never trusted my SS Number since and am currently terrified on the IRS and hope that the Treasury department handles the stimulus checks. The IRS’s computer systems are so unreliable that the IRS, when I went to file my taxes at their office for the 2008 tax year in 2009, could not even tell me at the IRS office where I went to directly file as an indigent/homeless tax filer, that my taxes had already been illegally filed for.
I had to wait 6 weeks for my tax letter to arrive at the homeless shelter before finding out that my taxes for the 2008 tax year had already been granted to someone illegally.
And once someone has stolen your Social Security number one has to live in fear for the remainder of their lives that that SS number is not used again to illegally get any stimulus/other checks.
The IRS knows that my SS return was stolen and from then on I have asked them not to allow any online filing for my SS number but I do not expect that the IRS will remember that I do not want them allowing any indirect IRS tax/stimulus check filing for me and the government needs to make sure that anyone that’s ever experienced SS number based tax fraud have their stimulus checks handled by the Social Security/Supplemental Security administration and/or the Treasury department because I’ll never trust the IRS and am terrified of the IRS getting any access to my bank deposit info.
I had already been through Hurricane Katrina and many homeless shelters afterwards(Aug 2005) and one homeless shelter in Georgia required everyone to stand in line and speak their entire SS number aloud each and every night, while standing in line, to get into the shelter for the night. And can tell you this that I took a bus to Boston in late 2008 and Boston was where I filed my for my 2008(In 2009) taxes at the IRS office Boston. And I was able to get my IRS refund by never was able to recover my Georgia(Where I last worked) state taxes.
The US government, and the state governments, act like folks that have experienced any sorts of SS number based fraud are just an annoyance. But folks that have had their Social Security numbers compromised are in for a lifetime of worry and potential abuse and no federal/state government agencies should trust SS numbers online as a reliable source of identification.
There will be millions in SS number based fraud unless the Government acts for any folks that have had documented SS number fraud/abuse. I’d rather have my check handled by the US Treasury and not the IRS and really there is going to be so much stimulus check fraud that maybe for folks on Social Security Desirability/Retirement the government could take more time as we are already getting checks monthly that cover most of our expenses.
I’d rather not get a stimulus check if it means the IRS has any access to my direct deposit information the US Treasury Department is the only one that needs deposit information for me and that info is with the Social Security/Supplemental Security administration.
Let the IRS handle the folks that are working and let the Social Security/Supplemental Security administration handle the folks that may not be working and who are not required to file federal income taxes.
Older disabled folks need the most government protection and the most protection form fraud and older folks do not need to be forced to be out and about fixing fraud all while being more vulnerable to COVID-19.