IRS: Stimulus checks on the way to beneficiaries of Social Security, other federal programs

The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that the IRS has distributed 156 million direct payments under President Biden’s COVID-19 relief bill after sending $36 billion to another roughly 25 million households.

The latest round of stimulus payments will begin arriving in bank accounts and mailboxes Wednesday, the IRS said, with the vast majority of payments heading to beneficiaries of Social Security and other federal programs.

More than 19 million payments within the new batch will go to recipients of Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits, 3 million will go to Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries and 85,000 payments will go to Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries.

More than 1 million payments will go to households that did not receive a previous stimulus payment or are now eligible to get additional funds.

The IRS has disbursed about $372 billion in direct relief payments under Biden’s bill, which was signed March 11. Former President Trump signed legislation in 2020 that approved two previous rounds of direct relief payments.

Treasury’s announcement means severely delayed relief should soon be in the hands of some of the most financially vulnerable Americans. The Social Security Administration’s weeks-long holdup in providing new income information to the IRS for federal beneficiaries kept millions of households that depend on the government to get by from receiving additional relief.