Social Security: How To Confirm If the Stimulus Check Rumors Are True
Written by
Caitlyn Moorhead
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Last year, Americans were bombarded online with claims about an alleged “fourth stimulus check” going out to seniors or people with disabilities. However, as the 2025 tax season is here, it’s important to know that many stimulus check claims are just rumors, and unfortunately, there’s no check on the way.
It’s important to note that Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients automatically qualify for stimulus checks. Though you may have heard a rumor of a fourth round $2,000 stimulus check, the only confirmed Social Security amount is from the third round of stimulus checks for SSDI recipients, which is $1,400. This payment was automatic for those who receive SSDI benefits.
To help you figure out what payments are and aren’t coming your way, GOBankingRates has compiled all of the relevant information for you here.
Quick Take: Economic Impact Payments
IRS spokesman Anthony Burke said the IRS has paid all the Economic Impact Payments. A Treasury Department spokesperson also told USA Today that no new round of stimulus checks has been approved.
Here are a few key considerations for what type of payments could be coming your way.
- Three rounds of $1,200, $600 and $1,400 federal stimulus payments were sent out to more than 160 million U.S. taxpayers as part of the COVID-19 relief package Congress passed in 2020 and 2021. The deadline to claim the 2021 credit is April 15, 2025.
- Eligible taxpayers who filed tax returns for either 2019 or 2018 will automatically receive an economic impact payment.
Are Other Payments On the Way?
McKenzie Sadeghi, AI and foreign influence editor for NewsGuard, told AARP that claims that new payments are on the way are due in part to the growth of generative artificial intelligence in content creation.
“We’ve seen this claim come up regularly on these websites — that you can get a fourth stimulus check,” Sadeghi explained to AARP. “It’s very in line with the type of content that we see from them, which are hoaxes aimed at generating clicks and getting people to the site.”
AARP also reviewed websites and videos that used a common search term, such as “stimulus check,” and applied it to several claims — the IRS is about to send out new payments, multiple states are offering tax credits or rebates and Congress is going to increase Social Security benefits. These are all false.
NewsGuard’s AI Tracking Center has identified more than 700 news and information websites running with little or no human oversight. Sadeghi said the number is growing every week, and the tracker count is “just scratching the surface.”
Sadeghi recommends looking for these signs of AI-generated, stimulus content:
- Inconsistency: AI-generated articles may contain contradictions, conflicting information or error messages.
- Repetition: Look for the repeated use of “stimulus checks” throughout the article.
- No attribution: No credit is given anywhere for the source of the information.
- Lack of transparency: There’s no byline and the site doesn’t disclose information about who is behind the content.
Josephine Nesbit contributed to the reporting for this article.
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