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What Social Security recipients need to know about stimulus payments

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dot Reilly is on Social Security, and like many others, she could use the stimulus money.

"I’ve got some medical issues that need to be taken care of and it’s just nice to know that that money is there to pick up medications and co-pays for insurance," she said.

[Everything you need to know about the stimulus payments, unemployment]

But Reilly hasn’t received her stimulus payment and she’s getting nervous.

"I let it ride for about a week and stewed about it the whole time," she told Action 9 reporter Jason Stoogenke. "I contacted you because I had not had any success in trying to find out when it was coming."

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Dozens of Social Security beneficiaries contacted Stoogenke as well; all wondering the same thing.

Action 9 found a recent House committee memo that gives a specific timeline for when people on all forms of Social Security will get their stimulus money:

  • If you get Social Security retirement or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and you filed a federal tax return recently that included direct deposit information, you should have gotten your money by now.
  • Most other people, including those on Social Security retirement who didn't file a federal tax return recently or didn't give direct deposit information, those on disability, and those who get survivor benefits, should get their money by the end of April.
  • If you get SSI and didn’t file a federal tax return the last two years, you’ll get your money by early May.
  • If you get Social Security retirement or SSI, and have dependent children and you didn’t file a federal tax return the last two years, you need to go to IRS.gov and provide their information. If you get Social Security retirement, you need to do this by noon Wednesday. If you get SSI, you have until later this month to submit the information. When you go to the website to enter the information, make sure you have your child’s Social Security number on hand. Recipients should receive $500 per eligible child.

IRS won’t send stimulus payments to wrong banks twice

It looks like the IRS will not be sending people’s stimulus money back to the wrong banks after all.

Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke broke the story and has been following it every step of the way for you.

People, like Teresa Deal, who used tax preparers and got refund advances were worried. In many cases, the IRS sent their money to the banks the tax preparers used for those advances instead of the people themselves.

“And it just panics you to know that money is out there floating around somewhere. Are you going to get it? When are you going to get it?” she asked Action 9.

Some of those banks -- like Metabank and EPS, a division of Metabank -- returned the money to the IRS.

The IRS website said it planned to resend the money this Friday, but right back to the same banks.

"I could not believe that whoever is running that henhouse up there could not connect the dots," Deal said.

Many people called their tax preparers for answers. Tax preparers like Kevin Burton, who owns Centra Tax and who has been working after hours, trying to get people answers. He said he fielded hundreds of calls each day.

“I’m giving them the information that we’re getting from the IRS,” Burton said. “But that information tends to change.”

Action 9 found out the IRS is sorting things out. One of the banks, EPS, sent tax preparers a message saying the IRS made an “error, corrected it, and does not intend to send payments back to the same accounts where those payments were returned.”

“I am relieved a little bit to know it’s not going to be ping-pong, back-and-forth. I’m relieved to know that, but now it’s just a matter of wait-and-see. Is it going to show up in the mail? At this point, I don’t have a lot of trust,” Deal said.

EPS says the IRS will mail checks to people’s addresses on file instead.