Social Security Recipients to Receive $250.00 Stimulus Payment

When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, more commonly known as the stimulus package, was enacted, almost nobody knew everything that said piece of legislation would do. (After all, it was over 1,000 pages long). We are still finding out about new benefits and changes to tax laws as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment act. The Social Security Administration recently announced one of these benefits.

As part of the 2009 stimulus package, Social Security beneficiaries will be receiving a $250.00 payment during the month of May. To qualify for the benefit, you must be receiving Social Security Income or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The Social Security Administration has stated that recipients will be given the money toward the end of May, 2009. There is absolutely no action required by beneficiaries to receive this benefit.

Over 55 million Social Security beneficiaries will be receiving these one-time payments. The Social Security Administration is still determining how they plan on distributing the payments, but they have a special website in which they will announce that information when it becomes available. It’s likely that they will either issue a special one-time check, or add it on along with the recipients’ regular direct deposit or check.

This benefit from the American Recovery and Reinvestment act will almost certainly attract con-artists that prey upon seniors. The most likely scenario is that a con-artist will send a fraudulent form to a social security recipient and request personal information so that the payment can be processed. If a victim were to fill out one of these fake-forms, the con-artist could use that information to steal the identity of the victim. It would be well worth it to remind any senior adults in your life that they will not need to do anything to receive this benefit and should not fill out any special paperwork to receive it.

The Social Security Administration has published a brochure that describes the benefit in detail. Click here to download it from the Social Security Website.