The Internal Revenue Service said Saturday that some people have already received their stimulus check -- but a lot of people have yet to see the money.
The first people to get their money are the ones who have set up direct deposit already with the IRS. There's no exact timetable on when people who haven't set that up will get their money.
Channel 2′s Matt Johnson talked to people who have been waiting for help for weeks.
Melinda Wellborn said her family needs all the help they can get during the pandemic. Wellborn was furloughed and is now one of 523,000 Georgians now looking for unemployment benefits.
The @IRSnews says stimulus payments have arrived for *some* Americans today. Meanwhile, 1000s of Georgians are still waiting for benefits from the state. Speaking to some people anxious to get any kind of help
— Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) April 12, 2020
... @ 11pm. pic.twitter.com/sXD8tihlSQ
"It's been very frustrating," Wellborn said. "Especially when you relied on a stable income and you were paying your bills, feeding your kids, and now you're kind of left with, 'What are you going to do?'"
The Fayette County mother is hoping the wait for stimulus checks isn't as long as the wait for unemployment assistance.
"Those benefits are there to help your family, but so many people are having issues just getting a simple response," Wellborn said.
On Saturday, the IRS tweeted that stimulus payments have already arrived in the bank accounts for some Americans.
But many businesses are still waiting for loan approval.
Krystle Rodriguez owns Hodgepodge Coffee in Atlanta. She said she still hasn't heard from the Small Business Administration on a loan she applied for three weeks ago.
"It's been rough," Rodriguez said. "If we don't get the financing we need soon, you know we might need to close our doors, and doing that makes it more of a reality that they might not open up again."
Rodriguez said the loan may keep her from having to lay off her staff. She's holding on to hope that a stimulus check could keep her family of four afloat in the short term.
“My husband and I both work for the business, and we haven’t been able to cash our last two paychecks,” Rodriguez said. “So we’re definitely looking for all the resources out there right now.”
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