The 2026 tax filing season opened on January 27, and the IRS announced it expected to process more than 140 million individual returns before the April 15 deadline. For most filers, that means a direct-deposit refund arriving within 21 days of e-filing. For some — especially older Americans on fixed incomes who depend on that money — those 21 days can turn into something far more stressful.
I first heard about Patricia Novak through a community Facebook group in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood, where she had posted a question about IRS refund delays in early March. When I called her, she picked up on the second ring and, after a brief hesitation, agreed to talk. “I don’t usually discuss money with strangers,” she told me. “But maybe someone else is going through this and needs to know they’re not alone.”
A Modest Budget With No Room for Surprises
Patricia Novak spent 32 years as a mail carrier and postal clerk for USPS in Pittsburgh before retiring at 62. When I sat down with her — over the phone, with her speaking from the kitchen table she described as “the nerve center” of her household paperwork — the picture she painted of her finances was careful and precise. She knew every number.
Her monthly income comes from two sources: a USPS pension of approximately $1,840 and a Social Security benefit of $1,105, bringing her to roughly $2,945 a month before Medicare Part B premiums are deducted. Three years ago, when her husband Donald passed away from a cardiac event, his Social Security check — around $1,350 a month — disappeared from the household budget entirely. “That was the month everything changed,” she told me quietly.
Her savings — roughly $14,000 in a credit union account — are earmarked almost entirely for medical expenses. She takes four prescription medications, two of which are only partially covered by her Medicare plan. She clips coupons from the Sunday paper and drives 20 minutes each way to a grocery store where she saves, by her estimate, about $38 a week compared to the shop around the corner.
Her 1960s-era home in Beechview needs a new roof — a contractor quoted her $8,500 in February — and the original furnace “sounds like a truck engine when it kicks on.” A second estimate for furnace replacement came in at $3,200. Neither repair has happened.
Why She Was Counting on That Refund
Patricia’s pension administrator withholds federal income tax from her monthly checks at a rate she set years ago, and she has not adjusted it since Donald died. As a result, she typically overpays slightly each year and receives a refund. Her 2025 return — filed using tax software on February 3, 2026 — showed a $2,847 federal refund, the result of excess withholding from her Form 1099-R pension distributions.
She chose direct deposit and opted for the IRS’s standard processing. Based on the IRS’s published schedule, which states that most e-filed returns with direct deposit are processed within 21 days according to IRS guidance, she expected the money by around February 24.
February 24 came and went. So did March 3. Patricia checked the IRS “Where’s My Refund” tool — a free online tracker at IRS.gov — each morning with her coffee. The status bar stayed frozen on “Return Received” for nearly three weeks before it shifted to a message she didn’t expect: her return required additional review.
The IRS Hold and What Followed
Additional review notices are more common than most taxpayers realize. The IRS flagged an estimated 12 to 15 million returns for manual processing or identity verification during the 2025 filing season, according to agency data. Patricia’s return had triggered an identity verification flag — a mismatch the IRS does not explain in detail through its online tool.
Patricia received no letter — at least not for the first several weeks. She called the IRS refund hotline (800-829-1954) on March 7. She told me the automated system could not provide an update and transferred her to a live agent queue. She waited 94 minutes before reaching a representative, who told her a Letter 5071C had been mailed on February 28 and she should watch for it.
“I thought I did something wrong,” she told me. “I kept going through everything in my head. Did I enter the wrong routing number? Did I make a math error? You start to feel like you’re in trouble even when you haven’t done anything wrong.”
The letter arrived on March 12. It directed Patricia to verify her identity online through ID.me, the third-party verification service contracted by the IRS for identity confirmation. Patricia, who describes herself as “not a computer person,” asked her daughter to help her navigate the process. It took about 45 minutes and required a photo of her driver’s license and a selfie scan.
“My daughter had to do most of it,” Patricia admitted. “I felt embarrassed asking her. I try not to involve my kids in my money situation. They have their own bills.”
The Refund Arrived — But the Problem Didn’t Go Away
On April 5, 61 days after she filed, the $2,847 appeared in Patricia’s credit union account. I asked her how she felt when she saw it. There was a pause.
The delay had a cascading effect she hadn’t anticipated. The contractor she’d planned to pay a deposit to moved on to other clients. A second roofing company quoted her $9,100 in late March — $600 more than the February estimate. The furnace, meanwhile, had a “bad week” in mid-March when temperatures in Pittsburgh dropped to 18 degrees and the unit cycled on and off erratically for several nights.
She did not call a repairman during those nights. “I put on an extra sweater and told myself it would be fine,” she told me. “What else was I going to do?”
Patricia has since used $1,900 of the refund as a deposit on the June roofing appointment. The remaining $947 went into her medical savings cushion. The furnace repair has been pushed to fall, when she hopes to apply for Pennsylvania’s LIHEAP energy assistance program — a federally funded benefit she learned about only after her daughter mentioned it during the ID.me session.
What Patricia’s Story Reflects About Refund Delays for Retirees
Patricia’s experience is not unusual, though it often goes unreported. Retirees who receive pension income on Form 1099-R and Social Security benefits on Form SSA-1099 make up a significant share of identity-flagged returns, in part because those forms are also frequently used in fraudulent filings. The IRS’s identity protection filters, while designed to prevent tax fraud, can ensnare legitimate filers — particularly those who file paper documents or whose prior-year returns show income pattern changes, such as the loss of a spouse’s income.
Taxpayers who want to reduce the likelihood of an identity hold in future years can request an Identity Protection PIN — a six-digit number assigned by the IRS that must be included on all future returns. The IP PIN program is available to all U.S. taxpayers, not just prior victims of identity theft. Patricia said she plans to apply for one before the 2027 filing season.
“I didn’t know that existed,” she told me. “Nobody tells you these things. You just file your taxes and hope it works out.”
When I wrapped up our conversation, Patricia mentioned that she had already started keeping her 2026 tax documents in a folder on the kitchen table — the nerve center — so she could file on the very first day the IRS opens the season next January. “I’m not going through that again,” she said. “I’m going to be first in line.”
She laughed a little when she said it. It was a tired laugh, the kind that carries more weight than humor.
Vivienne Marlowe Reyes is Senior Tax & Stimulus Writer at Check Day America. This story is based on a reported interview conducted March 28, 2026. No financial advice is given or implied.
Related: After 32 Years at USPS, She Retired Comfortably — Then Her Husband’s Death Changed Everything
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