In the age of paperless everything, this article I came across does not surprise me. It was announced that beginning in 2011 new payees of Social Security, SSI, Veterans Affairs and Railroad Retirement income will be required to receive their payments through either direct deposit or debit cards. Say bye bye to the Treasury department printing checks and mailing them. Unfortunately, those that are currently receiving these mailed checks will have to change up how they receive their payments by March 31st, 2011. This is going to be a huge money savings for our Treasury department, however it creates a few questions about the inconvenience this could cause those elderly individuals who have been receiving mailed checks. Will the elderly struggle with this because they are used to getting the mailed checks? It seems that the Treasury department will make exceptions if there are consumers that still must receive the mailed checks.
The peculiar thing about this article is it goes on to point out that this sort of new payment method might create additional victims of payday loans. However, I am not sure how this is applicable to those consumers that are not working and receiving this sort of income. Payday lenders do not generally lend money to those that are not working because of the inability to set up repayment programs etc. Payday loans are short term loans that many need, however those that are retired and receiving income such as SSI, are not even eligible for these types of loans.