Courtesy of Justice in Aging
This week, the Department of Treasury announced that SSI recipients will automatically receive economic impact payments without being required to file additional forms. Initially, Treasury planned automatic payments only for those who had filed tax returns for 2018 or 2019. These automatic payments were later expanded to include all Social Security recipients, including low-income beneficiaries who did not file tax returns but received SSA-1099 forms from the Social Security Administration. Expanding the list to SSI recipients will ensure that millions of very low-income older adults and people with disabilities will receive their economic impact payments. However, SSI recipients with dependent children under age 17 should still register online to receive the additional $500 payments for dependents as soon as possible. Now, we must push Treasury to extend automatic payments to low-income veterans who receive VA Disability Compensation or Veterans Pension benefits.