New Relief Bill: Everything You Need to Know About Stimulus Checks, Unemployment Benefits
The U.S. lawmakers struck a roughly $900 billion Relief Bill that will help millions of struggling Americans across the country amid the global pandemic.
Millions of Americans will receive the financial aids they need beginning next week, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin if the Relief Bill is signed into law.
There are more benefits that Americans and qualified residents will receive that lawmakers attached in the $1.4 trillion spending bill.
Read also: Some Workers Will Get $400 Weekly Unemployment Benefit, But Eligibility is Still Up for Question
Measures Under the New Relief Bill
Lawmakers struck a roughly $900 billion rescue package that they attached in the $1.4 trillion spending bill. This includes direct stimulus checks, federal weekly unemployment benefits, eviction moratorium, and more. Hopefully, this will be signed into law before the year ends.
According to the 5,600-page text of the bill that lawmakers introduced, the new deal includes restarting a $300 boost to the federal unemployment insurance benefit, extending eviction moratoriums for renters by a month, and a $600 direct payment to most Americans.
Even though lawmakers have already reached a deal, many of the unemployed Americans could see their unemployment benefit hitting their bank account late because of the outdated system that could slow down the distribution of the aid, according to experts.
The House of Senate passed the new Relief Bill late Monday and sending it now on Pres. Trump's table to sign it. Here are the measures of the new rescue package, according to USA Today:
Stimulus Check
The new Relief Bill includes $600 direct stimulus checks to Americans who earned up to $75,000 in 2019. However, the amount is half smaller than the $1,200 stimulus checks approved in Mach under the CARES Act.
Under the new Relief Bill, this will provide $600 per child, up from $500 in the spring, and also includes $1,200 for couples making up to $150,000 a year.
However, the size of the benefit would be reduced for those earning more than $75,000, or $150,000 per married couple. The amount will decrease by $5 for every $100 of income above those thresholds, phasing out entirely at $87,000 for individuals and $174,000 for couples.
Meanwhile, there is no cap on the number of children that a household can claim which means that a family of four can receive up to $2,400.
Unemployment Benefit
The new relief bill includes the extension of all pandemic unemployment programs that are set to expire at the end of December.
This will be extended to another 11 weeks but this is lesser than the 16 weeks extension that a bipartisan plan had called for earlier this month.
The call for the extension of the unemployment benefits came as two unemployment programs were set to end on Dec. 26 and these are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs.
Under the new Relief Bill, the new unemployment benefit will provide $300 federal weekly unemployment benefits for 11 weeks through mid-March.
The amount is lesser than the $600 provided under the CARES Act.
Eviction Moratoriums
The new Relief Bill also offers $25 billion in emergency rental assistance and provides an extension of eviction moratoriums by one month through Jan. 31.
Aspen Institute said that "loss in jobless aid and other stimulus relief would have put 30 to 40 million people at risk of eviction as moratoriums were set to expire in January."
Read also: New Relief Bill Includes $13 Billion for Food Stamps