Who may qualify for Democrats’ $1,400 stimulus checks? [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The Democratic-led proposal defines who would be eligible for the upcoming $1,400 stimulus checks as part of the new COVID-19 package proposal.
• President Joe Biden pushed that the $1,400 payment is final.
• The measure is expected to be passed next month and deployment of the financial support would follow in a couple of weeks.

Democrats’ recent proposal lays down eligible recipients of $1,400 stimulus checks once approved. The checks are planned to be sent out to millions of Americans. 

On Monday, the House of Representatives showed legislative drafts of the proposal. Through budget reconciliation, Democrats plan to add $1.9 trillion in the COVID-19 aid. 

“I’m not cutting the size of the checks,” President Joe Biden said during an economic update last week. “They’re going to be $1,400. Period.” 

The president added that the payments should be structured so that “folks making $300,000 don’t get any windfall,” which can happen in big families.

Other legislators, however, suggested that the criteria for qualified receivers were too broad. A group of GOP lawmakers proposed slashing stimulus checks for Americans earning $50,000 and couples with $100,000 income.

Senior fellow Howard Gleckman from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center said that the current proposal could cover around 160 million people, based on the guidelines and the modeling that they came up with for a similar package plan.

The cash aid would be $1,400 per person or $2,800 per married couple who co-applied for the checks, and an addition of $1,400 per dependent will be added regardless of whether it’s a child or an adult.

Same with the first two waves of stimulus checks, financial assistance would be given to Americans who earn up to $75,000 annual gross income, heads of household with up to $112,500, and married couples with a joint annual salary of up to $150,000.

There would be no payments available for individuals who earn $100,000 and couples with $200,000 combined income.

To be an eligible recipient of the cash aid, Americans need to have a valid Social Security number. For couples who filed jointly but with one valid number, they would only get $1,400 instead of the full $2,800. Dependents are also qualified to secure checks as long as they have Social Security numbers.

Individuals who died before January 1 will also not qualify for the payments.

By next month, the measure is set to be passed. Disbursement of stimulus checks is set to begin several weeks afterwards, per Gleckman.

“You’re getting awful close to tax-filing day… I would imagine that it’s not going to be much of a hardship for people who are in line for significant payments to get their 2020 returns in,” he said. 

Gleckman also noted that given the threshold of the recent proposal, progressive Democrats have won against their moderate colleagues in their party.

“It’s always a possibility that they’ll give up a little bit of this,” he noted.

Source: CNBC