Some checks yet to come
First wave of federal money still hasn’t arrived for everyone
William Bardwell is spending his nights at the City Mission of Schenectady shelter, his days walking the frozen streets, as he waits for his $1,200 stimulus check to arrive, eight months late.
Bardwell, 43, was an environmental field technician, until he was laid off in March due to the pandemic, he said. Then his house was vandalized — windows and doors smashed — so severely that it was no longer up to code to live in. But Bardwell can’t afford to fix it.
“I’m on bad times right now,”
Bardwell said Thursday. “The money they put out federally, saying they want to help everybody — I never got mine.”
In April, Congress decided to award most Americans a $1,200 direct payment to help them weather the pandemic, business closures and an economic recession. The IRS has made approximately 160 million economic impact payments, and millions of people received checks within weeks of the
legislation passing.
Congress is planning to send out a second round of smaller stimulus checks to many people. But the Times Union found it’s likely hundreds of people in New York and thousands around the country are still waiting for their first check to arrive.
It may be months before Bardwell and thousands like him receive their payment, a signature element of Congress’s spring coronavirus relief package.
The Internal Revenue Service has until Dec. 31 to pay out the last economic impact payments. The agency ceased working on outstanding cases on Dec. 10, according to House Ways and Means Committee members.
Unless the IRS changes the process due to the second round of stimulus, people who do not get their stimulus payment by the end of the year must claim it on their 2020 taxes for a rebate — that means it could be well into 2021 before they get their rebate, especially if they do not pay much in taxes or any at all.
The IRS is still working to distribute economic impact payments through the end of the year, despite short staffing and delays caused by the pandemic, an IRS official told the Times Union. A spokesman for the agency did not have an estimate for how many eligible people have not received their payment.
In April, Congress made economic impact payments available to U.S. citizens and residents with Social Security numbers who make less than $75,000 as an individual or $150,000 if married and filing a joint tax return. People with income greater than that received payments less than $1,200. The payment also included $500 for each dependent child.
The IRS mainly used individuals 2018 and 2019 tax returns to assess eligibility. The IRS distributed the funds to Americans by check, direct deposit and on debit cards.
“There were snafus. Some of them were technical, some of which were interpretation,” said Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-brookings Tax Policy Center and a former U.S. Treasury and Congressional Budget Office leader. “But I still praise the IRS for getting as many payments out to eligible people as quickly as they did. That was no small job and in the past it’s never gone that quickly.”
As of Aug. 28, 9.8 million New Yorkers had received their economic impact payments, according to the most recent data available from the IRS.
In September, the IRS sent letters to nearly 9 million lowincome Americans who don’t typically file for taxes — including 537,726 people in New York — advising them how to get a stimulus check by submitting their information online to the IRS.
New York congressional offices are assisting at least 140 people who are still waiting for these stimulus payments, according to data shared by five congressional offices. Several others told the Times Union they were helping people, but they couldn’t quantify the number. About half did not respond.
This number reflects just the people who have called or emailed their member of Congress asking for help. Others have turned to tax clinics or Facebook for assistance. In a Facebook group called Stimulus Check 2020, individuals post almost daily saying they are still waiting for their check and looking for advice.
There are many reasons some individuals may not have received a payment. Many low-income individuals are not required to pay taxes so they had to take extra steps to get the payment, delaying their receipt of the aid. Others never saw the money because it was taken by their bank to pay overdue child support or liens.
Xiaoxiao Pan, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, said he’s helping about five lowincome clients in the Capital Region fight for their checks. Some were the victims of identity theft; another person unlawfully used their Social Security number to apply for an economic impact payment. Others filed their 2019 tax returns by mail.
IRS staff had to work remotely at the start of the pandemic and when they returned in June, they were swamped by mail. That caused delays for people who filed their 2019 taxes by mail, Holtzblatt said, affecting both economic impact payments and tax refunds.
“As of the beginning of December, I think commissioner had said they still had a backlog of 1 million unopened pieces of mail,” Holzblatt. “The IRS has not completely recovered. … The IRS is not completely exempt from the challenges of the year of the pandemic.”
Bardwell is another Pan client. He’s also getting help from the staff of U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D -Amsterdam, he said. Bardwell made a mistake on his 2018 tax return, causing it to be flagged for fraud and set aside. But the IRS never alerted him of that action, Bardwell said, so he filed again in 2019, unaware, mailing in a paper return.
He has had multiple meetings with the IRS this year, but Bardwell still has not received his stimulus check or his 2018 or 2019 tax rebates, he said.
“I just don’t know what to do next,” he said. “I got to pay bills. I got to get a new apartment.”
Like Bardwell, Melanie Klucznik, 23, lost work due to the pandemic and has not received her stimulus check. She moved from Brooklyn to Mansfield, Conn., this spring.
She said she’s filed a tax return each of the past four years with the help of her father who is an accountant. She filed her 2019 taxes via Turbotax in January, she said.
She’s still waiting on an approximately $500 2019 tax rebate and her $1,200 stimulus check. She’s working as a waitress and her estimated income is about $15,000 this year.
She’s never heard from the IRS about her situation, although her congressman’s office has contacted them.
“It would be nice to have that impact payment because I have been struggling every single month since the pandemic started,” she said. “I’ve put in a lot of research. I can’t come up with any reason for why it hasn’t come in yet.”
In addition, many people received their stimulus check, but not the $500 per dependent child they were owed, sources said.
In May, the IRS set up a hotline that individuals could call with questions about their economic impact payment, after advocacy from U.S. Reps. Antonio Delgado, D -Rhinebeck and John Katko, R-camillus. That hotline was shut down Nov. 30.
The IRS also published a Frequently Asked Questions page, which at one point was populated with about 80 facts on the payments and what could go wrong.
Congressional offices and their case workers have also been a key resource for some frustrated constituents looking for answers about their economic impact payments and tax returns. Collectively, New York congressional offices have fielded thousands of calls and emails from constituents about the payments and helped hundreds of people receive their benefits, staff said.
“Sen. Gillibrand’s office continues to hear from constituents who have yet to receive their economic impact payments and 2019 tax refunds,” said Miriam Cash, Gillibrand’s press secretary. “While the CARES Act limits the length of time the IRS has to send EIPS, at a time when every dollar matters to New Yorkers, our office continues to work hard to help them find out how to receive their payments in the coming month.”
House Ways and Means Committee members wrote to the IRS on Dec. 3 asking them to keep open the congressional email box and resolve outstanding constituent inquiries by the end of the year.
People who do not get their economic impact payment by the end of the year will have to file for a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2020 taxes. Low-income individuals who didn’t get their payment this year and don’t usually file taxes will have to file another tax return in 2020 to get relief.
“If you haven’t received the payment and you are eligible based on your 2020 income, then file [ your 2020 taxes] quickly and file electronically and then hope for the best,” Holtzblatt said.
Congress is expected to approve a second round of stimulus checks that are smaller than the first — about $600 to $700, U.S. Sen. John Thune, R- S.D., said this week. The eligibility criteria may be more tailored so only low-income or needy individuals get the money.
On Friday, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO., tried to pass a bill to provide another round of $1,200 stimulus checks but another Republican senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, blocked the measure.
Hotlzblatt predicted that distribution of a new round of payments will go more smoothly because they IRS now has a plan. But if the coronavirus continues to surge and lockdowns ensue, the same delays could emerge again.