Almost 645,000 people still hadn't gotten their third stimulus checks by last fall, Treasury says

cnbc.com:

Almost 645,000 people who were eligible for the third round of stimulus checks hadn't gotten their payments as of mid-September, according to a U.S. Department of the Treasury report published Thursday.

The American Rescue Plan authorized the federal government to send up to $1,400 to each person who qualified, starting in March 2021. It was the third and final tranche of federal stimulus funds authorized by Congress during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The money was technically an advance payment of a tax credit, the Recovery Rebate Credit, that households can claim on their 2021 income tax return.

The IRS had correctly issued payments to nearly 167 million people as of Sept. 16, 2021 — almost 99.5% of the total, according to the report, published by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, a watchdog housed within the Treasury Department.

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However, the Treasury identified 644,705 people who hadn't gotten a payment within that timeframe, the report said. Their missing funds totaled $1.6 billion.

An additional 294,000 people had been issued stimulus payments by the federal government but the arrival of those payments was somehow delayed or the funds hadn't yet been accessed, the report said.

The number of people affected who've gotten a payment since mid-September is unclear. An IRS spokesperson wasn't able to elaborate on the contents of the report by press time. The report data suggests many of them have gotten their funds or that the IRS is evaluating the payments.

Further, more than 1.2 million total payments issued ($1.9 billion) were