Report: Americans may have to wait up to 20 weeks to receive stimulus payments from government

Some Americans may have to wait upward of five months before seeing the benefit of a government stimulus check.

What are the details?

According to a Thursday report from NBC News, the first Americans eligible for a stimulus payment are expected to see their checks direct deposited around the week of April 13 at the earliest.

The estimate reportedly came from the Trump administration memo, which was passed from House Democrats to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The outlet noted that people who don't have direct deposit information on file with the Internal Revenue Service may have to wait much longer to receive the payment.

The memo reportedly stated that about 60 million Americans will receive direct deposits in mid-April so long as such taxpayers provided their direct deposit information to the IRS on either their 2018 or 2019 tax returns.

Three weeks after that, the IRS is reportedly expected to begin issuing paper checks. The memo also noted that the office that processes the checks can process about 5 million checks per week — which would make a five-month wait a realistic timeline. The outlet noted that the office will first process paper checks for low-income Americans.

Social Security recipients reportedly will not have to do anything to file for their check, and will receive their payments as they would their monthly Social Security checks.

CNN reported that about 90 million to 110 million taxpayers could be impacted by a delay.

"This group includes people who have filed tax returns in recent years, but have not given the IRS their direct-deposit information, as well as non-filers who may need to file a 'simple' tax return if they want to promptly receive their rebates," CNN reported.

What else?

Last week, President Donald Trump signed a coronavirus relief bill into law, creating a program of direct payments of up to $1,200 per qualifying adult and $500 per qualifying child.

According to CNN, the IRS will have an online system in place by the end of April or the beginning of May allowing those who qualify for the payment to update direct deposit information and check on the status of the payment.

You can read more about who qualifies for the stimulus payments here.