To get a Covid-19 economic stimulus payment if you receive SSI benefits without also receiving Title II Social Security benefits you have to file an online "tax return" unless you happened to have already filed a tax return in the last couple of years. To file the "tax return" you have to have an e-mail address.
I think that filing even though this process seems simple to most that it will defeat many SSI recipients. I decided to pull up all my firm's active SSI only cases to see how many have an e-mail address. I looked at the first 100 that came up in alphabetical order by the client's name. Of that 100, only 43 had an e-mail address.
You might think that getting a G-mail account is simple and something that's necessary for modern life but most of my SSI clients haven't done it. Why? Many lack internet access. Many have mental limitations that make online transactions impossible for them. I'm not necessarily talking about cognitive limitations, although there's plenty of that in this population. Depression and anxiety make it hard to overcome even slight obstacles.
I hope that many SSI claimants can overcome the hurdle that has been placed in their path, perhaps with help from others, but this hurdle shouldn't have been there to begin with. This online form is unnecessary. Social Security's databases already contain all the information needed to make these payments. No one has even tried to defend this cumbersome process as necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment