If Someone Else Oversees My Federal Benefits Account How Will I Get My Stimulus Check
If someone, also known as a representative payee, helps manage your Social Security benefits on your behalf, that person — a relative, friend or someone appointed on behalf of an organization — should discuss your benefits with you, the beneficiary. That’s according to guidance from the Social Security Administration. So if you’d like to use your money, the person managing your account should provide you with the stimulus payment.
“Your Individual Representative Payee should have received your EIP to the same direct deposit account or Direct Express card as your monthly Social Security or SSI payment,” the SSA says on its site. “For an Organizational Representative Payee, the payee likely received the EIP electronically or by paper check in the mail.”
The SSA says representative payees aren’t required to account for the stimulus payment when they complete their annual accounting form, as it’s not considered a Social Security benefit.
You could be missing out on more stimulus money.
Will I Get A Coronavirus Stimulus Check If I’m Collecting Disability Benefits
If you are currently receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, you may be wondering whether you qualify for the stimulus checks appropriated in the $900 billion legislation recently passed by Congress. This massive Coronavirus relief bill passed in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on December 21, 2020. Though, as of the date of this post, the President has yet to officially sign the bill into law.
If the bill is officially enacted, many Americans should expect to receive a check from the federal government for $600 per person. The legislation stipulates that, in general, individuals currently receiving disability benefits are eligible for the Coronavirus relief checks. If you filed your federal taxes jointly, there is a chance you will receive a $1,200 check. In addition, if you have a child under the age of 17, you will likely receive an extra $600 check.
Stimulus Checks Cause Some To Lose Disability Benefits
Stimulus payments arent supposed to count against eligibility for social insurance programs like disability benefits, but some people might have lost benefits because of too much money in their bank accounts.
The Social Security Administration has suspended disability benefits for some Supplemental Security Income recipients because the stimulus payments pushed their bank accounts above the programs archaic $2,000 limit, according to legal aid attorneys.
The whole point of stimulus was to help people who were being harmed during COVID, and now theres going to be people facing a cessation of benefits and theyre going to end up in a worse place, said Michelle Spadafore, senior supervising attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group, citing several cases in New York that shes aware of.
Its likely that relatively few of the programs nearly 8 million beneficiaries have been affected. The program provides $794 monthly to people with disabilities and limited resources who cant earn much on their own. Most people on SSI would have been eligible for full stimulus payments from the three coronavirus relief bills Congress passed.
Everyone on SSI is subject to the resource limit, which hasnt been updated since 1989. Its $2,000 for individuals and $3,000 for couples, with exclusions for a home, a car and certain other assets.
Morris thinks its ridiculous, and that losing $79 of his monthly income could make it hard to pay his electric bill.
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Electronic Delivery Of Payments
The Social Security Administration no longer mails paper checks, although the U.S. Department of the Treasury does occasionally make some isolated exceptions to this rule. Otherwise, there are two ways you can receive your benefits:
- You can request direct deposit. Payments will be automatically posted into your bank account on your payment date.
- Your benefits will be paid to a Direct Express debit card if you dont have a bank account or you dont sign up for direct deposit. Payments are automatically posted to your card account on your payment day. The card works anywhere that takes Debit Mastercard and you can use it to get cash at ATMs, cash back at the grocery store, or to set up automatic payment of your monthly bills.
You have a third option if youre receiving Social Security disability benefits. You can set up an Electronic Transfer Account with the SSA, which will make automatic payments on your behalf from your disability benefits.
How Will People On Social Security Disability Receive Payment
Anyone who filed a federal income tax return for the 2019 or 2020 tax years should have received their stimulus payments either through direct deposit to their bank accounts or by check or debit card. The direct deposit is to the bank designated in their tax return for purposes of receiving their tax refund. The check or debit card options would be mailed to the address they put on their tax return.
Those payments, which the federal statute refers to as economic impact payments, were scheduled to be processed by the IRS in stages beginning in the middle of March of 2021. Anyone receiving benefits through either the SSDI or SSI programs who have not filed a tax return in recent years is not required to file one solely to qualify to receive their stimulus payment.
The IRS used information provided to it by the Social Security Administration about SSI and SSDI recipients to process payments to them. The first of those payments began being released by the IRS during the first week of April. If you have not received the third stimulus payment, you may check its status at the website specifically set up by the IRS for that purpose. Note that the IRS no longer allows you to obtain information about payments from the first or second rounds of stimulus money.
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Why Would A Married Couple Get Two Payments
A wide range of questions remain regarding the complex program. And not everyone is seeing their payments show up in the way they might expect.
Some married couples, for example, are questioning why they received two forms of payment or just what appears to be half of their expected payment.
IRS officials noted married taxpayers who file jointly but whose tax return includes an injured spouse claim may receive their third Economic Impact Payment as two separate payments.
“In most cases, the second payment will be delivered as directed by the tax return,” according to IRS officials.
“In a few instances, one payment may come as a direct deposit and the other mailed.”
An injured spouse claim is filed with the IRS to make sure that the entire tax refund won’t be used to offset your spouse’s past debt, including past federal income taxes by your spouse but not by you.
“By filing Form 8379,” the IRS notes, “the injured spouse may be able to get back his or her share of the joint refund.”
What’s confusing is that the second Economic Impact Payment may come the same week or within weeks of the first payment.
“Both taxpayers on the tax return should check Get My Payment separately using their own Social Security number to see the status of both payments,” according to the IRS. See www.IRS.gov for the Get My Payment Tool.
What Can You Do If You Did Not Get The First Or Second Stimulus Payments
If you did not receive payment for the first or second round of economic impact payments or believe you did not receive the full amount to which you were entitled there is a way to resolve it. You must file a 2020 tax return and claim the 2020 recovery rebate credit for the amount you are owed.
Lost payments from any of the three rounds can be traced by the IRS. If you find that the IRS records indicate payment being made to you, you can request that it trace the payment. Tracing takes time and will not begin immediately. Depending on how the payment was made to you by the IRS, the following waiting periods apply:
1). Five days from the date of a direct deposit that your bank did not receive.
2). Four weeks for mailed checks.
3). Six weeks for a check mailed but forwarded to another address because you moved.
4). Nine weeks when a check was mailed to a foreign address.
If you filed a tax return within the past three years, check with your tax preparer to verify the address on the return and the method you chose to receive any tax refund that may have been due before initiating a trace through the IRS.
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Did You File Your 2020 Income Tax Return
If you did not yet file a 2020 Income Tax return, then the IRS will not have your income information for 2020. Since eligibility for the third stimulus payment is dependent on your income being under the caps we showed you in the previous section, the IRS will not send you a third stimulus payment until you file your 2020 return.
Rd Round Of Stimulus Checks
What is a stimulus check? What should veterans, people in uniform, and their families know about economic stimulus packages and how they are paid? There have been two stimulus checks mailed to American citizens related to COVID-19 economic relief and at least one more on the way in 2021.
Most recently more than 320,000 payments, with a total value of $450 million, went to Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension benefit payments but who dont normally file a tax return and didnt use the Non-Filers tool last year.
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Are $2000 Monthly Stimulus Checks Possible
In response to President Bidens American Jobs Plan proposal, a group of 21 senators on March 30 sent a letter urging the inclusion of stimulus checks in the legislation. The group called for recurring payments as long as the pandemic lockdown continued, meaning people would get monthly checks from the government. No amount for the payments was specified.
We urge you to include recurring direct payments and automatic unemployment insurance extensions tied to economic conditions in your Build Back Better long-term economic plan, wrote the group, which consisted of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and others.
An earlier stimulus check proposal, put forward during the early days of the American Rescue Plan in late January, also suggested monthly payments until the pandemic is over, but did not mention an amount. However, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, tweeted earlier in January that she wanted to see $2,000 per month.
If that amount sounds familiar, its because now-Vice President Kamala Harris threw her support behind $2,000 recurring checks during the negotiations for the second stimulus check legislation in the summer of 2020.
The proposal has also gained plenty of support outside of Congress: Six online petitions calling for $2,000 monthly stimulus checks until the end of the pandemic have been posted. The biggest petition, on Change.org, has been signed by more than 2.8 million people and has a stated goal of reaching 3 million.
As Inflation Rises Rapidly The Senior Citizens League Is Calling On Congress To Send Those On Social Security A Fourth Stimulus Check Worth $1400
More than 169 million payments have been sent out in the third round of stimulus checks, but groups are continuing to push for a fourth as inflation continues to bite, as well as the dominance of a new covid-19 variant, Omicron, that is scaring markets and creating a burgeoning new wave of illness.
In New York, new covid-19 cases rose 60% in the week that ended on Sunday as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly around the US northeast. New York has set records for the most new cases reported in a single day since the pandemic started for three consecutive days. This has given a boost to the prospect of further stimulus checks as the risk of great economic trouble lies ahead.
One such is, the Senior Citizens League , a non-partisan advocacy group, started a pressure campaign to push Congress to send those receiving Social Security additional stimulus money. In a letter to leaders of Congress, TSCL Chairman Rick Delaney called for a one-off $1,400 Social Security stimulus payment for seniors. Such a measure could help defray the costs associated for some seniors from the 2022 cost-of-living adjustment, which was the highest in 40 years, pushing them into a higher tax bracket.
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If I Owe Back Child Support Will I Still Get A Payment
Yes. If you or your spouse owes back child support, your stimulus payment cannot be garnished to pay that debt. The same is true if you owe federal or state debts: your stimulus payment cannot be garnished. Your payment wont be levied by the IRS, either.
Although the second and third stimulus payments cant be garnished for unpaid child support, the amounts can be garnished if you dont get money up front and need to claim the credits on your taxes.
What About Lost Stimulus Payments
If you did not receive any of the three stimulus payments and believe it was lost, you may request that it be traced by the IRS. There are, however, waiting periods based on the payment method.
You must wait five days from the date of a direct deposit and four weeks for payments made by check. If a lost check went to an address that you no longer live at and the mail was forwarded by the post office, you must wait six weeks from the date the IRS mailed the check. The waiting period for checks mailed to a foreign address is nine weeks from the date of mailing.
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More Stimulus Payments To Be Issued In Coming Weeks
The IRS issued around 90 million stimulus payments on Wednesday, the majority of which were sent by direct deposit, while 150,000 checks were sent by mail.
“Additional batches and payments will be sent in the coming weeks by direct deposit and through the mail as a check or debit card,” the IRS said Wednesday.
To check the status of your stimulus payment, see the Get My Payment tool at the IRS website.
The graphic below, produced by Statista, illustrates the composition of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
How The Third Stimulus Check Became Law
The American Rescue Plan was signed into law on March 11, authorizing a third round of stimulus checks that pay a maximum of $1,400 for millions of Americans. Targeted income limits, however, exclude individuals earning over $80,000 and joint tax filers making more than $160,000.
Biden said at the signing of the bill: this historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation working people and middle-class folks, the people who built the country a fighting chance. Thats what the essence of it is.
House Democrats had moved the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill to Bidens desk with a 220-211 vote just one day earlier. But progressives in the party expressed concern over Senate amendments that excluded higher-earning taxpayers from getting a stimulus payment.
Biden agreed to narrow income level requirements as a concession to moderate Senate Democrats who wanted to cap payments for individual taxpayers at $80,000 and joint tax filers at $160,000.
The Senate bill narrowly passed with a 50-49 vote on March 6 after an overnight marathon of disputed amendments and negotiations. A 50-50 tie between both parties was avoided because Senator Dan Sullivan could not vote after returning to Alaska for a family funeral.
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Third Stimulus: Social Security Beneficiaries Receiving Checks After Holdup But Many Veterans Must Wait Until Mid
Millions of retirees and other low-income recipients of federal benefits are starting to see COVID-19 stimulus checks after weeks of administrative holdups, but many veterans still face at least another week of waiting.
The Internal Revenue Service says those on Veterans Affairs disability or pension benefits who do not typically file tax returns may receive their $1,400 stimulus checks by mid-April.
The IRS continues to review data received for Veterans Affairs benefit recipients and expects to determine a payment date and provide more details soon, the agency said in recent news release.
VA beneficiaries are among the group of vulnerable Americans who have experienced an inexplicable delay in stimulus payments approved as part of President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, according to lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee chaired by Rep. Richard Neal.
In late March, the lawmakers said theyd received reports of delays in critical assistance … for millions of Americans in need, including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income , Railroad Retirement Board and VA beneficiaries. In the two previous stimulus rounds in 2020, the IRS, Social Security Administration and VA worked together to ensure prompt payments, the lawmakers said.
While the IRS reviews VA data, payment details remain unavailable on the agencys Get My Payment tool.
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How Will I Get My Check If I Havent Filed A 2019 Or 2020 Tax Return
If you receive Social Security or Railroad Retirement Benefits and did not file a tax return in 2019, you will not have to file a return in order to receive your paymentthe IRS has your information already.
If you dont receive those benefits and did not file a tax return for 2019 or 2020, you may need to file one to confirm your eligibility. Check your status in the Get My Payment portal for instructions.
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