CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Brandi Fowler is on Supplemental Security Income and was still waiting for her third stimulus check Tuesday afternoon.
“It just seems like we should have been put in the checks with the first ones because we need ours just as bad. We’re on a fixed income,” she told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke. “I just look at it as when God wants me to have it, I’ll have it.”
Some federal lawmakers blame the Social Security Administration. They sent SSA a letter recently, saying the agency should have given the IRS information it needed sooner and should fix that.
Around the same time, AARP sent SSA a letter, urging it as well, saying, “Older Americans are counting on these payments to make ends meet. We urge you to continue to prioritize the facilitation of relief payments to federal beneficiaries, including those in U.S. Territories, and to provide clear communications to these groups moving forward.”
SSA says it “literally worked day and night” to address this even though, it says, Congress didn’t directly give the agency money to tackle this project. It says it had to make sure it gave the IRS “correct bank accounts and addresses” and that it didn’t pass along the names of people who have died. Plus, the agency said, there were legal issues about what role the agency could play in all of this, issues the agency says it warned lawmakers about early on. And, SSA said, once it worked those out, it cut through the red tape in “days” instead of the usual “weeks or months.”
The IRS said Social Security, SSI and railroad retirement recipients should get the money Wednesday, most likely direct deposit or on their Direct Express card. If so, that would be right in time for Fowler’s 60th birthday, which is Thursday.
Cox Media Group
