According to the Social Security Administration, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) announced on April 1 that Social Security beneficiaries who are not typically required to file tax returns will not need to file an abbreviated tax return to receive an economic impact payment. The IRS will use the information on the Form SSA-1099 to generate $1,200 economic impact payments to Social Security beneficiaries who did not file tax returns in 2018 or 2019.

Treasury, not Social Security, will make automatic payments to Social Security beneficiaries. Beneficiaries will receive these payments by direct deposit or by paper check, just as they would normally receive their Social Security benefits.

For updates from the IRS, visit www.irs.gov/coronavirus.

For SSI recipients, the Social Security Administration indicated that it is working closely with Treasury to address outstanding questions about SSI recipients in an attempt to make the issuance of economic impact payments as quick and efficient as possible.

The IRS will provide additional information at www.irs.gov/coronavirus when available.

Social Security did state that economic impact payments will not be considered as income for SSI recipients, and the payments are excluded from resources for 12 months.

The Social Security COVID-19 web page at www.socialsecurity.gov/coronavirus/ will be updated as further details become available.