More than 2.8 million Americans have now signed a petition on change.org asking for monthly $2,000 payments to be made to every adult American and $1,000 to every child for as long as the pandemic continues. A bill proposing similar measures was introduced to the Senate last May by Senators, including now Vice-President Kamala Harris, but not taken up.
The petition was started last year by restaurant owner Stephanie Bonin and has started to gain headlines, and signatories, again amid fears around the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. However, experts believe it's unlikely there will be a fourth check as the economy starts to pick up. But that hasn't stopped cruel rumors being posted on social media...
Click or scroll through for more on this and the staggering facts and figures surrounding America's stimulus program.
At the peak of the pandemic almost 40 million Americans had lost their jobs; that's nearly a quarter of the 157.7 million people employed in the US. As part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which was signed into law by President Trump on 27 March 2020, 159 million stimulus checks of $1,200 per adult and $500 per dependent were sent out to individuals earning less than $99,000 a year, while expanded unemployment benefits offered an additional $600 per week to unemployed workers. However, in May this year it was revealed that 1.2 million people who received these first checks still hadn't spent the money, as they either refused to accept, paid back or just didn't cash the checks, according to IRS records. The state with the most unspent checks is California, followed by Florida. But for many people that did cash the checks, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued that first payment soon wasn't enough...
A second COVID-19 aid package was signed off in December to the tune of $900 billion, entitling households to an additional $600 per adult and $600 per dependent. Also included in the bill was an unemployment subsidy of $300 per week until 31 March 2021 for those eligible for support. Much lower than the initial payment, within two months of his inauguration President Biden has galvanized a third coronavirus relief package named his American Rescue Plan, which includes another round of stimulus checks.
President Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed Congress in March. The bill provides a third stimulus check of $1,400 for eligible adults and also for their dependents, as well as $300 weekly federal unemployment benefit that will run until 6 September. However, the earnings threshold for the checks is lower than for the previous two checks at $80,000 or less gross income for individual tax filers, and $160,000 or less for joint filers. The bill doesn't include a $15 minimum wage as it did originally after that element was opposed by some Democrats, in addition to Republicans, in the Senate.
The first batch of the third set of payments was made by direct deposit on 17 March, with 90 million payments made totaling more than $242 billion. The next batches of direct deposit payments were made on subsequent Wednesdays and as of 10 June the IRS had sent out more than 169 million payments worth around $395 billion. The Treasury said the "vast majority" of recipients would get their payment by direct deposit, even if they received a check in the mail previously. More than 1.8 million new payments were sent out following tax return season, with 900,000 given to those previously not on record who filed tax returns, and 900,000 as 'plus-up' payments to taxpayers who are owed additional money in light of their filings.
And while a fourth check is unlikely, extra support has come in the form of new advanced child tax credits, which kicked in on 15 July, giving eligible parents access to the payments on a monthly basis rather than just when they file their tax returns.
Besides their value, another key difference with the third round of stimulus checks is how they are presented. The Trump administration's stimulus checks had a note at the bottom left that featured the then-president's name. They were also accompanied by a letter (pictured) signed by Donald Trump on paper that had a White House letterhead, despite the fact the check had a return address for the Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Texas. The decision to include this was a last-minute one by the Treasury, and drew criticism as Democrats viewed it as a way to link Trump to the payments just as the election campaign was really getting underway. And so President Biden's signature doesn't appear on the latest checks.
On 10 May, California's governor Gavin Newsom (pictured) announced a $100 billion economic recovery package for California, and the first measure would be "immediate relief" in the form of a $12 billion tax rebate to Californians earning up to $75,000. This would see 80% of tax filers in the state receive another stimulus check. Households earning between $30,000 and $75,000 a year would receive $600, while taxpayers with at least one child would get an extra $500 to take their check to $1,100. This comes on top of assistance already given out in California in its Golden State Stimulus Payments.
California provided stimulus checks of $600 or $1,200 to some low-income residents earlier this year, known as the Golden State Stimulus Payments. However, Newsom admitted that the proposal for the second stimulus was "not enough", and so he also announced a proposal to double rental assistance in the state, where 100% of rent would be paid. Those who had already received 80% rental assistance would be able to apply for more relief retroactively. Newsom also announced a $2 billion relief proposal to help pay for utilities such as water, gas and electricity, and this month the state has revealed plans to spend $12 billion on dealing with its homelessness crisis.
California can afford to offer this as it has a projected $75.7 billion operating budget surplus due to higher capital gains tax revenues from high earners, "a remarkable turnaround" from the projected $54.3 billion shortfall it announced in 2020. The state is also being boosted by a further $26 billion from federal government. Some other states including Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico and New York have offered extra relief at a state level.
A huge $39 billion of unemployment money from the $2.2 trillion CARES Act has reportedly been lost due to fraud and incorrect payments, according to news site Axios. Haywood Talcove, CEO, Government at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, told Axios that at least 70% of that money left the US, with a lot of it heading to groups in China, Nigeria and Russia. And at least $800,000-worth of payments have been taken by Venezuelans living in Florida and Mexico, according to federal authorities.
Tax rebates have also been targeted by fraudsters, leading to the IRS flagging 5.2 million tax refunds as potentially fraudulent last year, nearly 50% more than in 2019, with 1.9 million of those tagged for identity screening and the rest for income verification, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service.
You can check the status of your payment via the Get My Payment tool on IRS.gov. The tool is updated once a day.
Now read about what Americans are spending their stimulus checks on