CLEVELAND — How can people bounce back from the Coronavirus if they don’t have help? Millions are asking that very question. They are on Social Security and haven’t gotten their stimulus checks.
“We married in ’80. We met each other in 1979 in Massillon,” said David Carr, 69, from Cleveland. He and his wife Deborah were married 39 years. “That’s the love of my life,” he said with a picture of of the two of them in his hand.
Deborah recently fell ill. “Her immune system was weak to begin with,” David explained. On March 16, she passed away from pneumonia and flu, and David said possibly from novel coronavirus.
Both were on Social Security. Her payments stopped, and without any stimulus check yet for those on Social Security, David’s mortgage is in trouble. “As of May 1, I’ll be six months behind. That’s $4,500,” David said.
He is in desperate need of a stop-gap, and that’s what that stimulus money would mean, because after his wife passed Social Security told him it would be at least 3-5 weeks if not more for his widower benefits. “I got utilities (bills) backing up on me again. Not to mention other bills and stuff,” he told us. “I’m getting swamped with hospital bills.”
“I’ve been going all over the place..the IRS, Social Security,” said Charlotte Hall, 68, from Lodi. She’s on Social Security disability (SSI). She hasn’t seen her stimulus payment either. “IRS said it would be no problem because I got direct deposit. It would just go right into our bank,” said Hall. “And we’ve looked every day and there’s nothing.”
The good news is, according to the House Ways and Means Committee, people on Social Security should get payments this week, with some probably trickling in by early May. The reasons for the delays? Shear volume of payments and “glitches” in the process.
On a brighter note, 99% of people on Social Security have direct deposit and won’t have to wait even longer for paper checks. “That money would help us out a lot,” Hall said. “Us senior citizens are just living paycheck to paycheck.”
Seniors like David who is a Vietnam veteran, who also has two handicapped sons living with him, and who’s home hasn’t had a payment made on it for a long time. “This house is supposed to be paid for in ’22. I’ve been paying on it for 28 years,” David told us.
If you’re on Social Security, stimulus will come the same way you receive benefits. If you have questions about those accounts, call Social Security to confirm.
