Even as there is a push by lawmakers and the public for additional rounds of stimulus checks, a request for information has revealed that 1.24M payments remained unclaimed just from the initial round issued last spring, worth $2 billion.
72,988 payments remain unclaimed in the state of New York alone. The information was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the IRS. an official with the IRS said the stimulus checks, totaling 1,245,339 from the first round alone, represent payments that were returned, not cashed, or were not accepted. These payments were under the 2020 CARES Act.
California has the highest number of unclaimed checks at 123,265, followed by Florida with 92,018, Texas with 88,345 unclaimed payments, and Pennsylvania stands fifth at 72,252.
The government is already in its third round of payment since the stimulus checks were issued to tide over the economic downturn following the pandemic.
159 million payments have already been sent with a payment of over $388 billion.
Thrust For A Fourth Round Of Stimulus Checks
Several Democratic Senators have already written to the President for the fourth round of stimulus checks as Americans continue to struggle to meet expenses. While the economy is gradually opening up, unemployment levels remain abnormally high and many Americans have had to give up jobs to care for their sick ones. Congressional committee members from the House Ways and Means Committee wrote to the President on May 17 to back a plan for additional stimulus payments during the crisis. It has called for at least 2 more rounds of stimulus payments.
But the President has been preoccupied with the infrastructure bill and Jen Psaki has been evasive on the issue. Democrat Nancy Pelosi has also been quiet on the issue of additional stimulus checks. They remain more focused on the American Jobs Plan, President Biden’s plans to overhaul the infrastructure.
