Thousands of New Yorkers who previously couldn’t access the roughly $2 billion New York State Excluded Workers Fund without an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) because of IRS backlog will now have their chance to do so, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer announced on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
To qualify for the Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), workers had to obtain an ITIN from the IRS. However, because of backlogs, limited capacity and pandemic-related closures at the IRS, thousands of eligible New Yorkers would have had to wait for a year to receive their ITIN — delaying payments of a maximum of $15,600 from the fund.
