As soon as the middle of April, most Americans will receive a payment
of $1,200 per individual, $2,400 per couple, and $500 per child
directly to their bank account via direct deposit thanks to the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. As with any
new program, there has been some confusion about how it will work, and I
wanted to share some details for clarification.
You may have heard conflicting information about whether seniors are eligible for these payments. Seniors on Social Security ARE eligible for this payment. As long as your income does not exceed $99,000 for individuals or $198,000 for married couples, you can receive a payment.
Additionally, if you are
on Social Security and you have not filed taxes recently, you DO NOT
need to file anything with the IRS to get your payment. The IRS will use the information from the SSA-1099 or RRB-1099 forms to generate your payment.
The IRS plans to send these payments by direct deposit. If you don’t
have your banking information on file with the IRS don’t worry! They
will also be sending out some checks or debit cards, although these will
take longer to arrive. The Treasury Department is also planning to
develop a web-based portal for you to provide your banking information
should you wish to receive the payment via direct deposit instead of via
mail.
Unfortunately, the number of scammers taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis has seen an uptick. The
Treasury Department will NOT ask you to pay anything for this payment
and will not contact you for your bank account information.
If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from the government
asking for this type of information you can report it to
www.ftc.gov/complaint. You can learn more about how to protect yourself
from these type of scams here.
I will continue to provide information about these payments as it
becomes available. For additional information about the economic impact
payment you can visit the IRS website here. To stay up to date on the latest regarding the COVID-19 outbreak click here, and be sure to sign up for my e-newsletter
here where I am providing frequent updates on our response efforts as
well. It is an honor to represent you in the U.S. Congress.
Best regards,
Greg Walden
U.S. Representative
Oregon’s Second District