Woman receives stimulus payment after months-long search

Writer: Joey Pellegrino
Published: Updated:
sample look at a stimulus payment debit card with a screen of the IRS website in the background. EIPCARD.COM (DEBIT CARD); IRS.GOV (WEBSITE)

After months trying to track down her stimulus payment, Heather Arnold finally received a check in the mail last week.

“I was so excited,” Arnold said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Our first story about Arnold’s search for answers aired in July. The $2,400 stimulus payment provided much-needed relief.

“It’s going right to taking care of Victoria’s school,” Arnold said, referencing her daughter.

But the road to relief was long. Arnold’s debit card was sent to an old address, despite the IRS having her updated information,something she says she learned during her first call to the agency.

“Every time I talked to the IRS, I was given false information,” Arnold said. “Every single phone call.”

She next tried MetaBank, the company issuing the stimulus debit cards. But Arnold said she could never get a real person to pick up. So we connected her to a company representative.

“The man told me any of the funds that are returned to MetaBank automatically go back to the treasury,” Arnold said. “He knew the exact date it was returned to the treasury, he knew everything.”

The IRS response to this information was less than encouraging.

“The last woman I talked to said it could be sitting in a mail room somewhere—that was not very comforting,” Arnold said.

But despite the disheartening calls, things have worked out.

“Everything is just so tight,” Arnold said. “So it’s going to be nice to not be concerned about how am I going to pay for her to go to school.”

Whether or not a second stimulus payment is on the way is undecided: While both Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree something needs to be done, who should receive payment and how much is still being debated. The senate goes back to work next week.

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