Some nursing homes and assisted living facilities are stealing stimulus checks from residents. The government issued a warning about this illegal practice. The FTC said it’s getting reports that these places have ripped off the vulnerable people who depend on them by stealing their stimulus money.
Everyone who receives Social Security benefits or filed an income tax return in the past two years automatically received $1200 thanks to the CARES Act. This money was intended to help fight the economic fallout from the COVID-19 shutdown.
The money is intended for the person whose name is on the check. It can’t be used for back taxes, student loans, or attached by debt collectors. Some shady nursing homes and assisted living facilities are forcing people to sign over their checks to the facility.
The Lie
Shifty nursing homes have claimed that if a person is on Medicaid, the facility gets to keep their stimulus money.
That’s simply not true. That money is a tax credit. Tax credits do not count as resources or income when you receive federal benefits.
- If you have a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility, check to see what happened to their stimulus check.
- Residents of nursing homes or assisted living facility, don’t have to sign your check over.
- If your facility required a resident to sign over their stimulus check, you need to give that money back, ASAP.
What To Do
If you or a loved one has already signed over your check, you need to contact the Ohio Attorney General’s Office (or your state’s Attorney General’s Office.) Call toll-free Toll-free: 1- 800-282-0515, Monday – Friday from 8 am to 7 pm.
Then you or a loved one can head over to ftc.gov/complain to make sure the federal government is aware of what’s happened.
If someone says that’s not the case, have them check out the tax code right here.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any refund (or advance payment with respect to a refundable credit) made to any individual under this title shall not be taken into account as income, and shall not be taken into account as resources for a period of 12 months from receipt, for purposes of determining the eligibility of such individual (or any other individual) for benefits or assistance (or the amount or extent of benefits or assistance) under any Federal program or under any State or local program financed in whole or in part with Federal funds.”