U.S. SENATE News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, along with a group of 42 Senators, are calling on the Treasury Department to ensure that families who are not required to file taxes and will automatically receive their COVID-19 stimulus payment do not need to wait until next year to receive the additional $500 payment per dependent child that they were promised.
“We write to express our concern that without additional action from your agencies, many families who receive Social Security benefits and have young children may not receive the full cash assistance that Congress provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act until 2021,” wrote the senators. “We urge your agencies to ensure that economically vulnerable non-filers receiving Social Security retirement, Social Security disability, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits receive stimulus payments for themselves and their dependent children as quickly as possible – before next year.”
The letter follows the Treasury’s announcement on Monday that families on Social Security who do not file tax returns needed to enter additional information on the IRS website within 48 hours in order to receive the $500 payment per dependent child that they are entitled to, and that if they missed the deadline, they would not receive the additional payment until 2021. The Treasury’s announcement also indicated that they will soon set a similar deadline for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and certain Department of Veterans Affairs benefits who do not usually file taxes.
To remedy this issue, the senators wrote to the Treasury Secretary and Social Security Commissioner, stating, “We request that Treasury find another way forward that – without delaying any automatic $1,200 payments – ensures that these Social Security beneficiaries and their children quickly receive the full amount of cash assistance for which they are eligible. We urge your agencies to continue providing access to the Non-Filers tool after non-filers have received their initial automatic stimulus payments, so that these economically vulnerable individuals can request and receive additional payments for dependent children prior to 2021.”
The senators’ letter follows up on successful efforts to ensure that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who do not normally file taxes could receive their payments automatically.
Read the full text of the letter here.