So far, the federal government has sent out more than 130 million new COVID-19 relief payments under President Biden, totaling about $335 billion, according to the latest stimulus check update from the IRS.
A new wave of several million more stimulus payments is being sent out now, the tax agency continued as part of a news announcement that goes on to explain why some Americans have so-called “plus-up” payments on the way. This new wave of stimulus payments began on Friday, and most of them will be received on Wednesday, April 7. Per the IRS, they include a large batch of payments being sent to Social Security recipients and other federal beneficiaries who didn’t file a 2020 or 2019 tax return and who didn’t use the IRS’ Non-Filers tool last year.
According to the IRS, the new batch of so-called plus-up payments “includes the first of ongoing supplemental payments for people who earlier in March received payments based on their 2019 tax returns but are eligible for a new or larger payment based on their recently processed 2020 tax returns.” The ‘plus-up’ payments could also include a situation where a person’s income slipped in 2020 compared to 2019, or a person had a new child or dependent listed on their 2020 tax return, among other situations.
More than 4 million stimulus payments, with a value of more than $10 billion, will be included in this new batch of disbursements. This includes more than 2 million stimulus payments that will be direct-deposited electronically (totaling more than $5 billion), as well as another 2 million paper check payments (again, with a total value of more than $5 billion).
Additionally, this money includes stimulus payments for people for whom the IRS did not have sufficient information before that the agency could use to issue them a payment — although those recipients had recently filed a tax return and did qualify for a stimulus check. Payments to all of the recipients mentioned in this post are going to continue on a weekly basis going forward, according to the IRS, as the tax agency processes tax returns for 2019 as well as for 2020 (remember, the deadline for filing the latter has been extended one month, to May 17).
These recipients don’t need to take any proactive steps themselves in order to obtain payments under this new round of stimulus check disbursements. However, do check the IRS’ Get My Payment tool on the tax agency’s website to see when or if your payment has been scheduled to be sent out. Also, as a reminder, that portal on the IRS website is updated once a day, so there’s no need to check it — for details including whether your latest stimulus payment has been scheduled, and whether that payment will be sent out as a direct deposit or through the mail — more than once a day.
