After Push from Peters & Stabenow, Veterans to Automatically Receive Stimulus Checks
Reversal Ensures Veterans Who Receive Benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs Get Automatic Checks, Follows Senators’ Successful Push for Social Security and SSI Beneficiaries
DETROIT, MI – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (MI) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) welcomed an announcement from the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that $1,200 stimulus checks will automatically go to veterans currently receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Senators now have succeeded in getting the Trump Administration to reverse course and automatically send stimulus checks to Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients as well as VA beneficiaries without having to file a tax return. This direct cash assistance was included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Protection Act.
“Veterans should automatically receive their $1,200 stimulus checks – plain and simple,” said Senator Peters, a former Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve and a Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It is common sense for the IRS and the VA to coordinate so veterans aren’t forced to file additional paperwork, and this news will mean that veterans receive this relief faster. That’s why I pressed for the IRS to ensure veterans automatically get these checks. I will continue working to push the Administration to ensure Michiganders have the support and resources to get through this.”
“Our Michigan veterans should not have to wait at the back of any line,” said Senator Stabenow. “I’m glad to see the IRS and Department of Veterans Affairs working together so that veterans and their beneficiaries will receive their stimulus payments quickly without having to file additional paperwork.”
VA beneficiaries who have qualifying children under age 17, however, are encouraged to proactively go to the Non-Filers: Enter Your Payment Info section of the IRS’s website to provide their direct deposit information instead of waiting for an automatic $1,200 payment. By taking proactive steps to enter information on the IRS website about them and their qualifying children, they will also receive the $500 per dependent child payment in addition to their $1,200 individual payment. If VA beneficiaries in this group do not provide their information to the IRS soon, they will have to wait until later to receive their $500 per qualifying child.
###
