(April 3, 2020) On Friday, the Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities (CCD) issued a letter to federal leaders urging the Social Security Administration (SSA) to coordinate with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Veterans Administration (VA), to share information that would ensure that beneficiaries who do not normally file the SSA-1099 forms (on non-taxable benefits) required to receive CARES stimulus money can skip the step of filing for taxes, which would delay much needed payments for several months.
The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities is a large coalition of national organizations working together to advocate for federal public policy, who expressed concern about how beneficiaries will receive the Recovery Rebates provided by the CARES Act. The letter was addressed to Secretary of the Treasury, Steven T. Mnuchin; Commissioner of Social Security, Andrew Saul; and Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie. Disability Rights Louisiana is one of several organizations with shared concerns, who signed on to the letter.
The letter was written in response to recent statements made by the IRS that suggest that Social Security beneficiaries will receive their payments automatically based on the SSA-1099 form.
In the letter, CCD urges, “However, people receiving SSI or VA Disability Compensation and Veterans Pension benefits do not receive a SSA-1099 or similar form because their benefits are not taxable. These individuals will not be automatically issued a rebate. Like Social Security and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries, they need additional action by Treasury, SSA, and the VA, to ensure that they will not need to file tax returns to access their Recovery Rebates. Forcing millions of low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities, many of them veterans, to file tax returns when they are not otherwise required to do so will delay access to their Recovery Rebates and place a huge burden on the providers of disability and low-income tax preparation services.”
CCD advises to contact Bethany Lilly (lilly@thearc.org) and Stacy Cloyd (stacy.cloyd@nosscr.org) for further discussion of this important topic.
