An "inexplicable" delay at the Social Security Administration is holding up $1,400 federal stimulus checks for millions of vulnerable Americans like the elderly, disabled and veterans, House Democrats said Wednesday.
The group is impacted because they don’t file tax returns in getting Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Railroad Retirement Board or Veterans Affairs benefits. The $1,400 checks, passed as part of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package earlier this month, started landing in bank accounts only a few days after the bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11.
The ongoing delay should have never happened, Democrats contend, because the IRS asked the SSA to provide the information two weeks before that.
Democratic Reps. Richard Neal, Bill Pascrell, John Larson and Danny Davis, members of various House committees relating to the matter, said as much in a letter penned to SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul.
As reported by the HuffPost, Saul is a Donald Trump appointee whose term expires until 2025. Several Democrats have urged the president to fire him.
"We are aware that the IRS asked SSA to start sending payment files two weeks before the American Rescue Plan became law on March 11, 2021," the letter said. "As of today, SSA still has not provided the IRS with the payment files that are needed to issue EIPs to these struggling Americans. We demand that you immediately provide the IRS this information by tomorrow, March 25, 2021."
The SSA responded just hours after the letter was sent.
"Social Security staff is working day and night with Treasury and IRS representatives to ensure that the electronic file of Social Security and SSI recipients is complete, accurate, and ready to be used to issue payments," SSA Spokesperson Mark Hinkle told The Hill.
The agency expected the final files to be delivered to the IRS by Thursday.
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