Private Creditors can seize $1,400 stimulus checks

By Teddy Grant Published: March 12, 2021

Private Creditors can seize $1,400 stimulus checks

FILE - In this April 23, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump's name is seen on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, in San Antonio. There were just a few hundred coronavirus cases when Congress first started focusing on emergency spending in early March. By the end of that month, as Congress passed the massive $2.2 trillion Cares Act, cases skyrocketed above 100,000 and deaths climbed past 2,000. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Some Americans with unpaid debt could have their $1,400 stimulus checks garnished to pay off their debts, according to Fox 5 DC.

The direct payments, which are part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Biden signed into law on Thursday, are set to go out to eligible Americans this weekend. Still, unlike the first two stimulus payments from last year, the third stimulus check isn’t immune from debt collectors.

“The economic impact payments are intended to help families purchase food and other necessities to make ends meet,” the American Bankers Association and other groups wrote to Congress earlier this week. “Many people were already struggling prior to the coronavirus crisis and millions have now been laid off or had their hours cut.”

American Bankers Association and consumers have asked congressional leaders to introduce a separate bill that would shield the payment from creditors.