US pays aid to foreign workers who have left

THOUSANDS of foreign workers, who have left the US, have been receiving government stimulus cheques.

A cornerstone of the Trump administration’s $2.2trillion (£1.7trillion) plan to salvage the economy, the money was supposed to go to US residents.

A total of $290billion was to be paid out under the scheme, with the government relying on information obtained from tax returns to pay $1,200 into the accounts of millions of people.

However, the Internal Revenue Service has been unable to distinguish between tax returns filed by permanent and short-term residents.

According to accountants, part of the problem is that social security numbers for temporary workers have the same number of digits as those who live in the country permanently.

Some of those who received payments are foreign students who were in the country on a temporary visa.

Another beneficiary was a British woman, now back in London, who found $1,200 had been paid into her account on April 15. She had worked in New York as a communications consultant for several months on an investor visa before returning home.

The payments glitch is the latest problem to hit the stimulus programme. There has been criticism that small firms were denied loans needed for working capital, with the cash going to larger enterprises instead.

Meanwhile, several US states have started to ease restrictions amid hopes that the worst of the pandemic is over.

But the relaxation has not been enough for many Americans who have taken to the streets to demand that curbs be lifted faster. The protests have alarmed Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force. “It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally,” she said on Fox News, “because if they go home, and they infect their grandmother or grandfather who has a co-morbid condition and they have a serious or very unfortunate outcome they will feel guilty for the rest of their lives.”