By Benjamin Kail for masslive.com
Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who’ve waited nearly a month for their $1,400 COVID-19 stimulus checks should see them by Wednesday, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
Weeks of administrative holdups prevented retirees, Veterans Affairs beneficiaries and other low-income recipients of federal benefits from getting their checks as quickly as tens of millions of other Americans. Still, Social Security, disability and railroad retirement benefit recipients started getting their checks earlier this month, yet many veterans who bank on federal disability or pension benefits and don’t typically file tax returns have been left waiting.
The IRS said it was working to review recipient data from VA and would issue checks by mid-April; most of the payments will be directly deposited and started being processed over the weekend. The first checks approved in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan started going out on March 12.
Veterans should now be able to check the Get My Payment tool for information on their payment.
VA beneficiaries are among the group of “vulnerable Americans” who have experienced an “inexplicable” delay in stimulus payments approved as part of Biden’s plan, according to lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee chaired by Rep. Richard Neal.
In late March, the lawmakers said they’d received reports of delays in “critical assistance … for millions of Americans in need,” including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and VA beneficiaries. In the two previous stimulus rounds in 2020, the IRS, Social Security Administration and VA worked together to ensure prompt payments, the lawmakers said.
Following the latest batch of stimulus payments this week, the federal government has issued more than 156 million payments totaling about $372 billion since March 12, IRS says.
The American Rescue Plan approved $1,400 to adults earning less than $75,000 and couples less than $150,000, as well as $1,400 for dependents. The checks phase out for Americans making more than $75,000, with a hard cut-off at $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.