Many hard-hit families have yet to receive stimulus funds

Luna Steeple and her 65-year-old mother are a day or two away from being kicked out of the motel where they have been living, outside Detroit. Her mom lost her job in the pandemic. Their savings are gone. Their bank account has 12 cents in it. They aren’t sure when they will eat next. Their lifeline was supposed to be President Biden’s stimulus payment, but the $2,800 still hasn’t arrived.

“I feel like such a piece of crap asking people for money all of the time, but I don’t know what else to do,” said Steeple, who is disabled. “If it wasn’t for some friends and even strangers on Twitter, we would be on the street right now.”

A year into the pandemic, the U.S. government has enacted trillions in aid for hard-hit businesses and households, but it has faltered repeatedly on delivering relief in a timely manner. Early in the crisis, many benefit programs were overwhelmed with applications, leading to months of delays in sending out payments. Under the Biden administration, the problems persist.

Interviews with dozens of researchers and Americans still waiting for aid reveal ongoing problems with disbursing the $1,400 stimulus payments, processing 2020 tax refunds, administering unemployment insurance checks, and dispensing housing aid to people behind on rent and utilities. As the Biden administration vows to deliver a more equal economic recovery, one of its biggest challenges is getting money into the hands of people who are still jobless or underemployed, so they don’t fall further behind.

Experts say the administrative stumbles underscore the need for massive upgrades in technology, more staffing and clear program guidelines so the nation isn’t caught flat-footed for the next crisis. For families like Steeple’s, the delays in sending out aid right now can have dire consequences that determine whether she will sleep in a hotel or a car this evening.

“If people don’t get the money, Congress might as well have not even passed it,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist who is now a senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute. “We’re the United States. We have the technology hubs of the world and a $20 trillion economy. We should be able to fix this problem.”

Biden stressed Friday that his American Rescue Plan is making a difference and that by the middle of this week, 130 million households will have received their stimulus payments, with more funds on the way to schools, small businesses and local communities.

“We saw the economy gain traction in March as the American Rescue Plan moved and got passed, bringing new hope to our country. And we’re going to continue to implement that law in the weeks ahead,” the president said Friday.

One of the areas with clear glitches is the disbursement of the latest round of stimulus payments. About 30 million Americans who should have automatically received the $1,400 payments are still waiting, more than three weeks after Biden signed the $1.9 trillion relief package.