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When Should SSI Recipients Receive Stimulus Checks?

On Behalf of | Jan 28, 2022 | Social Security Disability (SSD)

The federal government processed the third stimulus payment in April of 2021, but there are people who have yet to receive it even though they met the eligibility rules. If you depend on Supplemental Security Income benefits as your primary source of income and have not received a stimulus check, continue reading for information about how to go about getting the money.

An SSI lawyer at NY Disability Law can help with lost or delayed SSI and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits as well as answer questions you may have about a missing stimulus payment. When you finish reading through this, contact NY Disability Law to schedule a free consultation to get answers to any lingering concerns that you have about Social Security disability benefits or stimulus payments.

Stimulus payments through the American Rescue Plan

The American Rescue Plan was enacted by Congress and signed into law in 2021 by President Biden. It funded a third stimulus payment for all Americans whose income did not exceed limits established under the legislation. The law authorized stimulus payments to all Americans whose adjusted gross federal income as reported to the Internal Revenue Service did not exceed $75,000.

Married couples who filed joint income tax returns qualified for a stimulus payment as long as the adjusted gross income they reported did not exceed $150,000. Someone filing a federal tax return as a head of household qualified for a stimulus payment provided their adjusted gross income did not exceed $122,500.

If you received benefits through SSI, you automatically qualified for a stimulus payment because you would have met the second criteria, which was that your income was too low in 2018 and 2019 to require the filing of a federal income tax return for either of those tax years.

Beneficiaries of these other federal programs may automatically qualify for economic impact payments:

  • SSD.
  • Railroad retirement and survivors benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act.
  • Social Security retirement and survivor benefits.
  • Disability, pension and survivor benefits payable through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

You may wish to speak to an SSD lawyer if you have not received a stimulus payment. SSD eligibility does not have the income limitations associated with SSI, so an SSD lawyer can help you determine if you meet the guidelines to be eligible for stimulus payments.

Missing a stimulus check? Check your bank account

The fact that you qualify for SSD benefits through the SSI program and have not received a stimulus check may not necessarily mean that you did not receive the payment. The federal government, through the Internal Revenue Service, relied on direct deposit information that taxpayers used to receive refunds for their 2019 and 2020 federal tax returns when it processed stimulus payments.

Instead of expecting a check to arrive in the mail, you should look at your bank account to make certain it was not deposited directly by the IRS. If you did not provide information on your tax returns for direct deposit, the IRS would have mailed a debit card and not a check to your address as shown on the 2019 or 2020 tax returns.

SSD and SSI recipients whose income may not have required the filing of a tax return for 2019 or 2020 should still have received stimulus payments. The Social Security Administration provided

What to do if you did not receive a payment

If you searched and cannot find a stimulus payment that you know you were eligible to receive, the IRS no longer offers a tracing service for any of the three rounds of stimulus payments. According to its website, the IRS processed and issued payments to all people eligible for stimulus payments in all three rounds, but that does not mean that you cannot benefit from a lost payment.

Missing payments for Economic Impact Payments in the first and second rounds can be claimed as a Recovery Rebate Credit, but you must file a 2020 federal income tax return to do so. If you already filed a return for that year, you must file an amended return and claim the Recovery Rebate Credit for the amount of the missing stimulus payment.

A third-round payment that you have not received can be claimed as a Recovery Rebate Credit on your 2021 federal income tax return. The IRS website lets you look up the amount of payments that you were eligible to receive in each of the three rounds. This information is important because you need to include the correct amount on your tax return in order to receive the credit.

Get help with all Social Security disability matters

Although the process to receive credit for a missing stimulus payment may seem overwhelming, it is worth the effort. An SSD lawyer at NY Disability Law can help you with all matters related to Social Security disability and guide you through the process of receiving credit for missing stimulus payments.