Stimulus check: how many Americans have not received the payment

The CARES Act was approved by president Donald Trump in mid-March and since April the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been sending stimulus payments to millions of Americans struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The IRS has already sent out more than 150 million stimulus payments, at a cost of $218.4 billion.

This money has helped the more than 30 million Americans who lost their job during the outbreak in the month of March. There are, however, still millions more who are waiting for their stimulus payment and in this pool are people who don’t have a bank account or are at the higher earnings range. While many have already spent the $1,200 and are hoping for a second payment, others have not even received the first one.

The federal tax collector, the agency tasked with distributing $290 billion in stimulus money via direct deposits and paper checks, released an update on the payments on 9 May. The agency said it had made 108.5 million payments via electronic direct deposit and mailed 19.7 million paper checks.

Reasons why some people have not received the stimulus payment

The IRS started sending direct payments and checks to those most in need based on their 2018 and 2019 tax returns. For those who don’t have banking information, an estimated four million people, the IRS began issuing prepaid debit cards in the mail last week.

The Visa debit cards will arrive in a plain envelope marked “Money Network Cardholder Services” and you can use that card, once activated, as you wish. Another reason why some Americans have not received their stimulus payment is because the IRS can only send out five million paper checks a week, and they started with the lowest income earners.

The IRS also allowed people to update their bank account information online so that they wouldn’t have to wait for a check in the mail, but the deadline passed on 13 May. On the other hand, some people aren’t eligible for the stimulus payments, like undocumented workers who pay their taxes but don’t have a social security number. College students are also ineligible for stimulus payments under the CARES Act.