BALTIMORE (WBFF/WKRC) - New payments were sent out on October 15 as the most recent installment of the expanded federal Child Tax Credit. That payment and a lot of other money was made available to people as part of the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Joe Biden back in March.
The American Rescue Plan sent $1,400 checks to most Americans earlier this year. However, there is one group that believes it would benefit from another check and there's an advocacy group aiming to get the money.
The group is The Senior Citizens League, which is proposing a new $1,400 payment for senior citizens. There may be good reason to get them more money. Social Security checks are slated to go up 5.9%, the biggest increase in nearly 40 years. That translates to an extra $92 per check. However, inflation threatens to eat most of that increase. The consumer price index rose 5.4% in September from a year ago - the biggest increase in 13 years.
Earlier this month The Senior Citizens League Chairman Rick Delaney sent letters to Congressional leaders saying that some seniors are still in dire straits. The letter says in part:
"We’ve heard from thousands of them [seniors] who have exhausted their retirement savings, who have started eating just one meal a day, started cutting their pills in half because they can’t afford their prescription drugs, to list just a few of the drastic steps so many have had to take because of what inflation has done to them this year.
Many have written to us that “our government has forgotten about us.”
The group has an online petition to gather signatures of seniors who support this idea. According to the petition, "Social Security benefits are one of the few types of income in retirement adjusted for inflation. But soaring inflation has taken a toll on household finances of retired and disabled Social Security recipients."
How likely is this to happen? Even The Senior Citizens League has questions about that. "It is unlikely Congress will take action on our proposal this year but if we can build enough support from seniors for it, we are hopeful it can become a major issue next year and that Congressional support for it will grow," the group wrote in its weekly update.