Stimulus Payments Headed to Social Security Recipients Soon

Social Security recipients and other federal beneficiaries who don’t normally file a tax return should expect their coronavirus relief payments soon.

The federal government began distributing the third round of economic impact payments in mid-March to millions of Americans. But a paperwork delay temporarily held up payments to Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries who did not file a 2019 or 2020 tax return or did not use the tool made available on IRS website for non-filers.

The IRS said Tuesday that it expects payments will be sent to those beneficiaries on April 7.

The government needed updated beneficiary information to begin distributing the latest round of payments. After receiving data from the Social Security Administration on Thursday, the IRS began reviewing, validating, and testing tens of millions of records to ensure eligibility and proper calculation of the payments.

If no additional issues arise, the IRS said it expects to complete that work and to begin processing these payments at the end of this week. Because the majority of the payments will be disbursed electronically, they would be received on April 7.

The IRS updates its Get My Payment tool for eligible individuals once their payment is processed. The agency notes that the tool on IRS.gov will not be updated until this coming weekend with information for federal beneficiaries expecting payments next week.

The IRS said it is still reviewing data received for Veterans Affairs benefit recipients and expects to determine a payment date and provide more details soon.