Coronavirus (COVID-19): Important Information about Social Security Services
Reading Time: 1 MinuteLast Updated: February 21, 2023
All local Social Security offices will be closed to the public for in-person service starting Tuesday, March 17, 2020. This decision protects the population we serve—older Americans and people with underlying medical conditions—and our employees during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, we are still able to provide critical services.
Please read our press release to learn more, including how to get help from the Social Security Administration by phone and online. You can also visit our website to learn more and stay up to date.
Please share this message with your friends and loved ones.
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Tags: COVID-19, social security, Social Security benefits
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Mike Korbey, Deputy Commissioner for Communications
Mike Korbey, Deputy Commissioner for Communications
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Rochelle O.
It is amazing to see the perspective of people that are being looked after as you all ponder how to help. While reading through a great deal of this I have found a mass amount of it weighs on seniors, which personally I find fantastic.
I am deeply concerned at the factor at a group at just at high risk just like myself is being over looked. I recieved SSI, fought for it for ten years to have health issues worsen that are non-reversable now. Sadly, within that time to find that part of two years my case sat in a pile of over 500 in Mt.Pleseant having nothing done to it being lied to; being forced to work while my health worsened and I fought for my life so I could watch my daughter grow..
I have a serious autoimmune disorder, Lupus (amongst far more)which takes over my body. Breaks it down, even mimics other diseases, worse prevents me from having a immune system. In a time like this I can not afford not having an immune system, and becoming is is lethal. I have to take all precautions possible, I live on minimal that pays my bills and barely my necessities.
Stocking up to stay in for my is almost comical, I am not fortunate enough to live in low income due to not being enough housing where I live. Therefore, when government and state starts discussing assisting yet not taxpayers this highly concerns me. You are gapping a mass portion of people, people that can not help their position in life. They didn’t ask for disabilities, to have to live by the means they are required to but have to; if anything we are the people who actually spend and live properly knowing what we must do to survive.
Some of us are fortunate and can work part time, yet with this virus were the first to lose that opportunity and are suffering just as much as the taxpayers. Hense the petty stress on this wall being shown, if it isn’t being evicted from our homes, becoming ill ourselves, simply not having what we vitally need.. It is simply being forgotten by our nation when we need them the most, please.. You have all informed us we are high risk and be careful, please do your part and make sure we are capable of helping ourselves as well…
Brenda F.
DO de GET a STIMULUS PACKAGE ofrecer on ssdi
A.C.
Hi, Brenda. We understand there have been reports about the possibility of additional government payments to individuals due to the economic effects of the Coronavirus. At this time, no law has been passed that calls for Social Security to issue any new payments. We hope this helps to answer your question.
marti
Coronavirus rescue checks may shortchange some Americans on Social Security
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working out the fine print on plans to send Americans checks in the wake of financial devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
That has many wondering whether seniors, specifically those receiving Social Security benefits, will be included.
A new Senate bill does include Social Security income as one qualification. Advocates want lawmakers to make sure that no beneficiaries fall through the cracks.A bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calls for sending checks of $1,200 to $2,400 to most Americans as a result of the economic damage stemming from the coronavirus outbreak.
Based on the language of the bill, most Social Security recipients should be covered.
But whether that will help or hurt seniors depends on the fine print of the legislation, which lawmakers are still wrestling with on Capitol Hill.First, the measure calculates how much you receive from the government based on your 2018 tax return. And while that calls for $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for those who are married and filing jointly, it can vary.
If your tax bill is below $600 as an individual, you get $600. If your tax liability is above $1,200, it would be capped at $1,200. Those amounts would be doubled for married couples.
The catch is that you do have to have income to qualify. So counting Social Security benefits as income will help seniors, saidJeffrey Levine, director of advanced planning at Buckingham Strategic Wealth in Long Island, New York.
But there are individual circumstances that could be overlooked based on the current proposal. For starters, the checks that go out now are going to be based on 2018 tax returns.
Because of that, people’s needs now might not be reflected in information from back then.
“People’s lives change so much in two years,” Levine said. “Our world has flipped upside down in a span of weeks, and they want to key this towards something that’s years ago? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Specifically, some individuals who are receiving Social Security retirement benefits or welfare support through Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, might be excluded, said Webster Phillips, senior legislative representative at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
If your Social Security benefits are below $25,000 for an individual and $32,000 for a couple, none of it is taxable. Those individuals, therefore, do not file tax returns.
So if you’re just living on money from Social Security benefits or SSI, it’s not clear whether you would be eligible for a check, Phillips said.
Back in 2009, the Obama administration sent a $250 one-time check to everyone receiving Social Security benefits, SSI or benefits through the Veterans Administration.
“We are hoping to see as broad a relief as possible to as many seniors as possible — all of them, ideally,” Phillips said.
Regardless of where the negotiations land on bonus income, seniors can take heart in the fact that their monthly Social Security checks will not be interrupted, said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
“Social Security checks, which is really the mainstay for most seniors, are going to go out on time and continue just as they always had,” Munnell said. “There’s one component of seniors’ income that they just don’t have to worry about.”
Yet many seniors also have a financial need for bonus checks, Munnell said. That goes especially for those who have been working to supplement their income and have lost that employment or those whose nest eggs have diminished.
kylie d.
I am on ssi. I do not think we get any of the stimulous? money. my mom has social security retiremement, I wonder if she can?
and who ever has been coming here calling people lazy need to shove off. i get that some people are, but there actually are those of us with legit disabilities… it is not easy to get it, ask the many that have been trying for years with doctor approved documents.. I get tired of hearing everyone on ssi is a scammer. yeah right if it were that easy the system would have triple the amount it has now. stop being so nasty
Sonja B.
ALL US CITIZENS WILL RECEIVE IT FROM WHAT I WAS TOLD. CALL SSA FOR MORE INFO
Jason
Nope, its tied to filing a tax return. Most seniors who make less than 25 K are not required to file. You get ZERO
A.C.
Hi, Kylie. We understand there have been reports about the possibility of additional government payments to individuals due to the economic effects of the Coronavirus. At this time, no law has been passed that calls for Social Security to issue any new payments. We hope this helps to answer your question.
Tony
Reading all this I noticed the ones calling us lazy, moochers, bums, and so on are not even on SSI or SSDI. You people only came here to troll and bully. Here’s a little knowledge for you. When your close to 70 years old and put your years in and start collecting, you’ll soon find out what a real struggle is. Gods forbid you hurt your self to the point you can’t work. Then you will know what struggle is. Most people here get under 1k a month living in a 1k rent state. So getting this check in April and May could help a lot of AMERICANS. In the end y’all are trolls and pathetic beings most likely living in their mothers basement and makes memes for a hobby and considers Game Streaming a job. Pathetic. Promise you the trolls calling us moochers and bums are under 21 and have nothing better to do than to troll a government issued web site. Keyboard gangstas who talk shit on the net but face to face will sh!t their pants.
Also this is a SSA site and article. Why isn’t SSA monitors not taking charge with the harassment? Seems like SSA is slacking a bit. We have questions. Most of us paid a life time in to this system.
Larry
AND THE ANSWER IS: Social Security recipients WILL receive full amount checks!!!
“The Senate GOP plan
“On Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released his plan.
Within the nearly 250-page bill is a proposal that would send up to $1,200 per person in a one-time payment. There would be an additional $500 per child. The payments would be based on income, so individuals making up to $75,000 annually ($150,000 in the case of a married joint return) would get the full $1,200.
Income is defined as wages, Social Security benefits, and any pension income. It appears that potential recipients would have the option of using their income from either 2018 or 2019 to calculate the benefits they receive.”
This appeared today on this site: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-checks-here-are-3-proposals-to-get-money-to-americans-132226900.html
brad
social security benefits is ssdi not ssi…
sally
ssi is a form of welfare i think. but what about retirement brad? is that included like the ssdi disability, do u know?
brad
im not sure..
A.C.
Hi, Sally. We understand there have been reports about the possibility of additional government payments to individuals due to the economic effects of the Coronavirus. At this time, no law has been passed that calls for Social Security to issue any new payments. We hope this helps to answer your question.
Pat
Do u guys read the news? It said you have to have Earned at least 2,500 .ssi and ssdi is unearned
Caitie
$2,500 in a month?
Pat
2,500 for the year
latrice r.
will there be an early release due to having to stay home from work?
brad
they should give everyone the same amount. including people on ssi/ssdi say if someone on ssi gets $783. pay the difference of the amount they pay everyone. for instance, if $1200 is what they pay 1200-783=417. give them $417.all this tax stuff don’t make sense everyone needs it.
Greg s.
Will be getting 600.00
brad
ssi is unearned income.. it’s only for earned income people.. tax payers.
Larry
Wrong: Income is defined as wages, Social Security benefits, and any pension income. It appears that potential recipients would have the option of using their income from either 2018 or 2019 to calculate the benefits they receive.
brad
I’m telling you people on ssi will not get it. and obviously you don’t understand the difference between ssi and ssdi.
Art
So yeah three or four hundred post later and still no answer as to whether seniors on SSI will get any extra money.
Just a bunch of snowflakes concerned about how somebody answered somebody else. I can about guarantee there are a ton of people making comments that shouldn’t even be on SSI or disability.
nunya
Agreed
Nick
ssi gets nothing. ssDI is included ONLY
vicky
It wouldn’t be taxed (Obama’s wasn’t, either, in 2009), but everyone can forget it, anyway.
The Democrats ARE DEAD-SET AGAINST sending out checks. Instead, they want to expand UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.
So the checks are NOT happening because the Democrats hold the purse strings.