When Will Social Security Recipients Get Third Stimulus Checks?

En español | The IRS has sent a wave of pandemic stimulus checks to government retirees who normally don’t file federal income taxes. Now the agency is sending payments to Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who don’t normally file taxes. 

To date, the IRS has delivered 159 million stimulus payments worth about $376 billion during the coronavirus relief mandated by the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Joe Biden signed on March 11. 

Many low-income beneficiaries — including recipients of Social Security retirement and disability benefits, as well as recipients of SSI benefits administered by the Social Security Administration — aren’t required to file tax returns, and some of those payments were delayed. The IRS said it was waiting for updated information from the SSA on bank accounts and addresses of federal beneficiaries to ensure the stimulus payments reach eligible individuals. 

AARP has pushed the IRS and the SSA to move more swiftly to get those checks to individuals who don’t file federal income taxes.

“We urge you to provide clear information on the IRS and other federal agency websites about when exactly these groups should expect their payments. Older Americans are counting on these payments to make ends meet. We urge you to prioritize these federal beneficiaries in both your payment distribution and communications efforts moving forward,” Bill Sweeney, AARP’s senior vice president of government affairs, wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig on March 25. A similar letter from AARP went to Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul  on the same day.

On March 25 the SSA gave the IRS the updated information required to begin delivering stimulus checks to some 30 million federal beneficiaries still awaiting payments, Saul said.

As a result, the majority of those who receive Social Security retirement and disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Railroad Retirement Board benefits — and didn’t file 2019 or 2020 tax returns or use the IRS online Non-Filers Tool last year — got their payments around April 7, mostly through direct deposits or payments to existing Direct Express cards. The IRS began sending those 25 million payments, worth $36 billion, on April 2.  

The updated information from the SSA helped ensure that direct deposits go to correct bank accounts and that paper checks and debit cards go to correct mailing addresses. The revised information should also reduce the number of payments sent to deceased individuals, which was a problem in the first two rounds of economic stimulus. Anyone who died in 2020 or earlier isn’t eligible for the third stimulus payment.

“In short, 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 ready to be used to issue payments,” Saul said in a statement.