SSDI Recipients Were Included in All Three Rounds of Stimulus Payments

If you receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), you were automatically included in the three rounds of stimulus payments issued between 2020 and 2021. You did not have to file a tax return or take any action to receive the money — the Social Security Administration (SSA) sent payments directly to the bank account or address on file with your SSDI record.

The three payments were: $1,200 in April 2020, $600 in December 2020, and $1,400 in March 2021. The SSA used the same payment method you normally receive your monthly SSDI benefit, so if you get direct deposit, the stimulus arrived that way. If you receive a paper check, a stimulus check was mailed to your address.

Because these payments ended in 2021, they are no longer being issued. This article explains how the payments worked, who received them, and what to do if you did not get one or believe there was an error.

Key Takeaways

  • All SSDI recipients automatically received all three stimulus payments without having to take any action or file paperwork.
  • Payments were sent using your existing SSDI payment method — direct deposit or paper check — between April 2020 and March 2021.
  • If you did not receive a payment, you could claim it on your 2020 or 2021 tax return as a Recovery Rebate Credit, even if you normally do not file taxes.
  • Stimulus payments did not count as income and did not reduce your SSDI benefit amount.
  • No new stimulus payments have been issued since March 2021, and there is no current program to issue additional payments.

How SSDI Recipients Received Each Payment

The SSA identified SSDI recipients using its own records and did not require you to register, file a form, or contact anyone. If your name and Social Security number were in the SSDI system, you were sent a payment automatically.

The first payment ($1,200) went out starting in mid-April 2020. The second payment ($600) began in late December 2020. The third payment ($1,400) started in mid-March 2021. Each payment took several weeks to reach all recipients because the SSA processed them in batches based on your birth date.

You received the payment through the same method you use for your regular SSDI check. If you had set up direct deposit with SSA, the stimulus was deposited to that bank account. If you received a paper check by mail, a stimulus check was mailed to your address on file. If you received benefits on a Direct Express card (a debit card issued by SSA), the payment was loaded onto that card.

What Happened If You Did Not Receive a Payment

Some SSDI recipients did not receive one or more stimulus payments due to address changes, banking errors, or SSA record problems. If this happened to you, you could claim the missing payment on your federal tax return for the year it should have been sent.

You claimed the payment as a Recovery Rebate Credit on IRS Form 1040 (the main tax form) or Form 1040-SR if you were 65 or older. You did this even if you normally do not file taxes — filing just to claim the credit was worth doing because the IRS would send you the money.

To claim the credit, you needed to know the payment amount you missed ($1,200, $600, or $1,400) and the year it was supposed to arrive. The IRS had a tool on its website where you could check the status of your payments, though that tool is no longer available. If you are unsure whether you received all three payments, you can contact SSA directly at 1-800-772-1213 to ask.

Stimulus Payments and Your SSDI Benefit

Stimulus payments did not reduce your monthly SSDI benefit and were not counted as income for purposes of SSA's income limits. This meant you could receive the full stimulus amount without any penalty or loss of benefits.

The payments also did not affect your may be able to access for other means-tested programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, or SNAP (food information), though the rules for those programs vary by state. If you receive SSI in addition to SSDI, you should have received the stimulus through SSA as well, since SSI recipients were also included.

If You Received a Payment by Mistake

In rare cases, someone received a stimulus payment they were not may have access to to — for example, if they had died before the payment was sent, or if a payment was sent to the wrong person due to an error. The IRS and SSA asked people to return these payments, but there was no automatic penalty for keeping them if you did not realize the error.

If you received a payment and later learned you should not have, you could return it to the IRS by mailing a check to the address shown in IRS notices you received. You could also claim it as income on your tax return and let the IRS sort out the overpayment. Most people who kept payments by mistake were not pursued for repayment unless the amount was very large or the error was obvious.

Checking Your Payment Status

The IRS had a "Get My Payment" tool on its website that let you check whether a stimulus payment was sent to you and when. That tool is no longer active because all three rounds of payments have been completed. If you need to know the status of a payment from 2020 or 2021, you can contact SSA at 1-800-772-1213 and ask them to check your record.

You can also look at your bank statements or Direct Express card history from April 2020, December 2020, and March 2021 to see if deposits arrived on those dates. If you received paper checks, you can check your mail records or contact your local post office if you believe a check was lost.

No Current or Future Stimulus Payments

As of now, there is no active stimulus payment program for SSDI recipients or any other group. Congress would have to pass new legislation to authorize additional payments, and no such bill has been passed since the third round ended in 2021.

If you see advertisements or websites claiming to help you get a new stimulus payment or offering to "unlock" money you are owed, those are scams. The only legitimate way to check on past stimulus payments is through the IRS website (irs.gov) or by calling SSA directly at 1-800-772-1213. Do not pay anyone to help you with this.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to pay taxes on the stimulus money I received?

No. Stimulus payments were not taxable income, and you did not have to report them on your tax return. If you filed a return for 2020 or 2021, you did not include the stimulus as income.

What if I moved and did not get my check?

If you moved after registering with SSA but before a stimulus payment was sent, the check may have gone to your old address. You could claim the missing payment as a Recovery Rebate Credit on your tax return for that year. Contact SSA at 1-800-772-1213 to confirm whether the payment was sent and to which address.

Can I get the stimulus money back if I spent it?

No. Once you received the stimulus payment, it was yours to keep. You did not have to repay it unless you received it by mistake and the IRS specifically asked you to return it, which was rare.

Will there be another stimulus payment for SSDI recipients?

There is no current plan for additional stimulus payments. Congress would have to pass a new law to authorize them. Check irs.gov or call SSA at 1-800-772-1213 if you want to confirm your payment status, but do not expect new payments unless Congress acts.

What if someone stole my stimulus check?

If a paper check was stolen or lost in the mail, you could report it to the U.S. Postal Service and request a replacement. You could also claim the missing payment as a Recovery Rebate Credit on your tax return. If the payment was deposited to a bank account and then stolen through fraud, contact your bank and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.