During the period immediately after the pandemic, the US government issued multiple stimulus checks that continued for close to 2 years. it helped Americans ride out the storm as the world experienced the worst recession since the Great Recession more than a decade ago. Ye the payments stopped at the end of 2021.
The expanded Child Tax Credit payments were the last of the direct federal stimulus checks that were paid as a partial advance between July and December 2021. All direct payments were discontinued in 2022 even though President Biden had planned to continue the payments through 2025.
Americans could still collect unpaid stimulus checks including 50% of the CTC payments that were set off against the 2021 income tax returns filed in the first quarter of 2022. But millions of Americans remained who have not collected their payments. And the reasons are multiple.
The Pending Federal Stimulus Checks Could Add Up To A Significant Amount
The stimulus check payments were sent out based on the data of income tax filers with the IRS and many non-filers, whose incomes are too low to be listed as taxpayers have missed out on the payments. The IRS sent out a letter in the third quarter of 2022 to close to 10 million Americans inviting them to file a simple tax return and collect the payments.
Pending payments include the third stimulus check paid under the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Biden in March 2021. The other payments include the Earned Income Tax Credit and the expanded Child Tax Credit payments.
The total payments could add up to $10,000 for a family of four. In an economy beset by record inflation that has pushed up prices to unmanageable levels for low and moderate-income families, it could come as a boon for many families. Till the payments come in, the state stimulus checks remain the only economic support that any government has provided to its citizens.
