30 Million Social Security Recipients Waiting on Stimulus Checks May Soon Get Their Payments

Person holding check.Photo: Getty

Thirty million Social Security recipientswaiting on stimulus checksmay finally receive the money they’ve been looking for, thanks to an agreement between the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service.

Social Security and SSI (Supplemental Security Income) beneficiaries are to receive their payments automatically — but a lag in communications between the SSA and the IRS prompted delays,CNNreported.

In aThursday press release, Commissioner of Social Security Andrew Saul offered an update on the SSA’s processing of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act," saying that while “immediate delivery of EIPs has been, and remains, a top priority for this agency,” they’ve faced hurdles along the way toward getting payments into the hands of recipients.

“Despite the fact that Congress did not directly provide SSA funding to support our work on EIPs, we have provided countless hours of assistance to IRS consistent with the laws that establish how we may use the Trust Funds that every American counts on us to protect,” Saul alleged.

The House Ways and Means Committee confirmed in apress releaseof its own on Thursday that the SSA had “sent missing payment files” to the IRS, and that the IRS must “do its job and get these overdue payments out to suffering Americans.”

Saul, meanwhile, denied the claims, and said that the SSA was not authorized to “substantively engage” Treasury or IRS before the American Rescue Plan Act was passed, and that once it was, they had to come to an agreement with the IRS.

The SSA eventually “completed the required interagency agreements,” and once that occurred, Saul said, they “were free to move forward” and “aggressively worked with Treasury and IRS to issue payments.”

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Person holding check.Getty

Saul said in his statement that “as a result of our efforts,” the SSA was able to sign the reimbursable agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on March 17, less than one week after the act was passed.

“A few days later, on Monday, March 22, SSA sent initial test files to IRS,” he continued. “IRS confirmed testing success on Wednesday, March 24. Production files were delivered to IRS before 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 25 — more than a week sooner than we were able to provide a similar file to IRSduring the first round of EIPs.”

“In short,” Saul said, “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 readyto be used to issue payments.”

U.S. currency.Getty

The news comes after a third round of 127 million checks was disbursed this week — but some frustrated couples haveonly received half of their payment. This is due to a glitch with the IRS' system, in which payments are divided into two installments for married couples when one has filed an injured spousal claim, according toCNN.

Couples in this situation are still eligible for their full $1,400-per-person stimulus payment, as the IRS told CNN, but the second installment may come within weeks of the first. They can check the statuses of their payments separately with theIRS' online Get My Payment tool.

source: people.com