The U.S. Internal Revenue service launched a website for tracking coronavirus checks today. Some users are getting told their payment status is’not available’. Even after an official explanation was posted online, they have no way of knowing what’s wrong.

The system is supposed to help people find out if they’re eligible for one of the $ 1,200 relief checks that are being sent to many Americans. The idea is to speed the release of money that many citizens desperately need.

The only explanation for the error on the page says’we can not determine your eligibility for a payment at this time’. A link to a long FAQ has the relevant information about midway down the page.

According to the IRS FAQ, you might see the’payment status unavailable’ message. Here’s when you may see the message.

It appears if you simply enter a made-up social security number, birth date, and address combination, so it appears to be generic catch-all error for the system, instead of a useful or actionable error message.

The IRS said this afternoon that its website is’operating smoothly and effectively,’ saying that 6.2 million taxpayers have received their status. The vague feedback leaves people guessing if they’re even supposed to get a check, let alone whether it’s being held up by their tax filing or benefits status.

Reddit posters speculate that the response is a glitch or a sign that the site is over capacity. The agency has n’t ruled out the prospect of people seeing the message in error.

We left a phone message with the IRS media hotline, hoping to get more information. People looking for payments do n’t even have that recourse. The FAQ repeats several times that you should n’t contact the agency directly.