Politics
Fury over $1,400 stimulus check delay for millions of disabled and retired Americans
MILLIONS of disabled and retired Americans are still waiting on a $1,400 stimulus check due to a payment processing delay.
Democrats said this is because Social Security has yet to give the IRS the payment information it needs to send out the coronavirus relief checks to nearly 30 million people on retirement or disability benefits.
Millions of disabled and retired Americans have yet to receive their payment[/caption]
Yesterday, it emerged that while the second batch of the stimulus checks is set to arrive today, older Americans or those receiving social security benefits may have to wait longer.
House Ways and Means Committee chair Richard Neal outlined the situation in a letter to Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul on Wednesday, reported the Huffington Post.
“We understand that these beneficiaries are waiting because the Social Security Administration has not sent the necessary payment files to the Internal Revenue Service,” he wrote.
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and Rep John Larson recently urged Joe Biden to fire Saul, who had been appointed by Donald Trump.
The situation created a backlash on social media[/caption]
His term expires in 2025 – but some people have called for him to be fired as a result of the delay yet Biden appears reluctant to do so.
“FIRE ANDREW SAUL,” raged one Twitter user, while another remarked: “IF Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul is a TRUMPER – he must be removed!”
A third said: “Time to fire the holdovers. Get them out. How does this holdover benefit Americans? It doesn’t. Walk them to the curb.”
“This is maddening!” commented a fourth person. “My elderly aunt, in her 90s, received the last stimulus quickly.
“Now she is still waiting, and she could use that money to pay medical bills. That’s nothing for her to file, no child credits. Just a bureaucrat holding up her money just because he can.”
The Social Security Administration has not sent the necessary payment files to the IRS[/caption]
So far, 127 million payments have been sent out but Neal and other members of his committee earlier this week asked Social Security and the IRS to outline why there was a delay to Americans.
The letter stated that lawmakers were “aware that the IRS asked SSA to start sending payment files two weeks before the American Rescue Plan became law on March 11, 2021” – but the information still hasn’t been provided.
An agency spokesperson reportedly said Social Security will send the payment file on Thursday but they weren’t allowed to work on the payments ahead of time.
This is because lawmakers didn’t give Social Security the same kind of appropriation they were given during the first round in 2020.
The representative said: “Social Security staff is working day and night with Treasury and IRS representatives to ensure that the electronic file of Social Security and SSI recipients is complete, accurate, and ready to be used to issue payments.”
One the file is sent to the IRS, it will still take more than a week.
This time around, the IRS didn’t not set up an online payment portal where people who don’t file taxes could input their details because the information is based on the last round.
IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig testified: “Many of these folks are also entitled to an [earned income tax credit].
“They’re also entitled to a child tax credit. We did not get that information from the non-filer portal.”
On March 12, the Social Security Administration’s website issued a note about the checks.
It stated that the “IRS is reviewing the tax provisions” of the new law and promised that Americans would have answers soon. “soon.”
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This comes after the New York State Department of Labor confirmed that people who certified their unemployment claims over the weekend will experience a delay getting it in a Twitter statement.
People who certified the documents on Sunday will have a one to two-day delay but those who certified on Monday or later would not have to wait.
But irate users blasted the situation online which came about because Joe Biden‘s $1.9trillion American Rescue Plan extension kicks in this week.
