Supplemental Security Income Recipients Will Receive Automatic COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments

https://blog.ssa.gov/supplemental-security-income-recipients-will-receive-automatic-covid-19-economic-impact-payments/

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Andrew Saul, Commissioner, Social Security Administration

The Treasury Department announced that Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will receive automatic Economic Impact Payments directly from the Treasury Department. Treasury anticipates these automatic payments to go out no later than early May.

SSI recipients with no qualifying children do not need to take any action in order to receive their $1,200 economic impact payment. The payments will be automatic.

SSI recipients who have qualifying children under age 17, however, should not wait for their automatic $1,200 individual payment. They should now go to the IRS’s webpage and visit the Non-Filers: Enter Your Payment Info section to provide their information. By taking proactive steps to enter information on the IRS website about them and their qualifying children, they will also receive the $500 per dependent child payment in addition to their $1,200 individual payment. If SSI beneficiaries in this group do not provide their information to the IRS soon, they will have to wait until later to receive their $500 per qualifying child.

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Social Security retirement, survivors, and disability insurance beneficiaries (who don’t normally file taxes) will also qualify for automatic payments of $1,200 from Treasury. These payments are anticipated to start arriving around the end of April.

The Treasury Department, not Social Security, will make these automatic payments to beneficiaries. Recipients will generally receive the automatic payments by direct deposit, Direct Express debit card, or by paper check, just as they would normally receive their SSI or Social Security benefits.

For those SSI and Social Security retirement, survivors, and disability insurance beneficiaries, with dependent children, who use Direct Express debit cards, additional information will be available soon regarding the steps to take when claiming children under 17, on the IRS website.

Please note that the agency will not consider Economic Impact Payments as income for SSI recipients, and the payments are excluded from resources for 12 months.

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