While the odds of the general populace getting a fourth stimulus check are unlikely, an influential, nonpartisan senior advocacy group is lobbying Congress to send one more $1,400 check to people who receive Social Security to help them battle inflation.
The Senior Citizens League has sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, urging them to consider the age-focused stimulus.
“We’ve heard from thousands of them [seniors] who have exhausted their retirement savings, who have started eating just one meal a day, started cutting their pills in half because they can’t afford their prescription drugs, to list just a few of the drastic steps so many have had to take because of what inflation has done to them this year,” the letter reads. “Many have written to us that ‘our government has forgotten about us.’”
Next year’s Social Security checks will have one of the biggest cost-of-living adjustments in decades, with increases of more than 6%, but the Senior Citizens League says it’s not enough. That’s because, in part, the larger Social Security payment could bump some seniors into higher tax brackets, resulting in surcharges to their Medicare Part B premiums.
A special stimulus for Social Security recipients could help defray those costs, it says. And Social Security benefits for 2021 went up just 1.3%.
The group acknowledges the chances of a special stimulus check being approved this year are slim, but it’s hoping to rally seniors to make this a major issue in 2022 that will build congressional support.
It’s not just seniors who are hoping for a fourth stimulus check, though. More than 2.9 million people have signed a Change.org petition calling for recurring $2,000 payments to adults and $1,000 payments for children.
The Biden administration has brushed off talk of a fourth round of stimulus checks, however, pointing instead to the Child Tax Credit, which began making the first of six payments into the bank accounts of parents on July 15, and the American Rescue Plan, which is designed to stimulate the economy.
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