Social Security recipients, Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries and railroad retirees will begin receiving their $1,400 stimulus checks on April 7, the Treasury Department said in a statement
The Internal Revenue Service will begin processing the payments by the end of this week, and the majority of the payments to federal beneficiaries will be sent electronically and received on April 7, according to the statement released Tuesday.
The IRS is still reviewing the data for Veterans Affairs benefit recipients and expects those payments could be disbursed by mid-April.
The payments will be sent in the same way that the recipients get their normal monthly transfers — which for many people is loaded onto a prepaid Direct Express debit card. The announcement means millions of households, many of which are low-income, will receive an infusion of cash in the coming days.
The IRS is sending the money weeks after the agency began processing the payments for the general population. The delay for about 30 million Social Security beneficiaries resulted from the Social Security Administration not providing an updated list of eligible recipients to the IRS until March 25, according to letters from House Democrats.
“Our teams immediately began processing data we received last week for federal benefit recipients,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement Tuesday. “We know how important these payments are, and we are doing everything we can to make these payments as fast as possible to these important individuals.”
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have been urging the IRS to expedite the payments, saying they were concerned that some of the most vulnerable Americans were facing needless delays in receiving their payments.
The IRS has sent about 127 million stimulus payments worth about $325 billion, the agency said on March 24 — about 79% of the more than $410 billion approved by Congress earlier in the month.
The IRS has an online tool for people to check the status of their payment.