With time running out millions of residents of America are still yet to claim their stimulus checks. Those who have missed the April deadline for filing their tax returns, now have time until Oct. 17 to do so and claim their stimulus payments.
Usually, people with little or no income are not expected to file their tax returns. But in order to qualify and receive stimulus check payments, they must file their tax returns, which is much simplified. They must do so at ChildTaxCredit.gov on or before Nov. 15.
Stimulus Checks: Lower-Income People Still missing out
As per GAO estimation, around 10 M people qualify for the stimulus check payments but are yet to receive them as they have not yet filed their tax returns. These are people who constitute the Low-Income group. People could qualify to receive stimulus checks from the previous rounds of federal payments which were approved in the year 2020 and 2021as well as the Child Tax Credit which was approved in 2021.
The Govt., between April 2021 and Dec 2022, allocated USD 931 Billion to be distributed to people affected by the pandemic. The Child Tax Credit was approved to make a monthly payment, per child of USD 300 to families who qualified.
A much bigger challenge lay ahead for The IRS and The Treasury since they had records on Income Tax Payees and had no data, what-so-ever, on people who did not file their returns. They did reach out to them to inform them that they were eligible for the payments as well as CTC payments.
The GAO reports do not indicate how successful were they in reaching out to such people, especially those with lower- income, people with limited access to the internet, and people who are experiencing homelessness. The GAO has advised the office of the IRS and the Treasury to do more in reaching out to the people who may have qualified but are yet to receive their stimulus payment.
