The House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better bill on Friday with one measure missing. Is another round of direct stimulus check payments still coming people’s way?
After sending the third stimulus check, personal income rose to $24.1 billion in March. Since then the figure has dipped, and in September hit $20.4 billion. One of the main factors pushing the decrease was the ending of federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs which dropped from an average of 2% of personal income from April to August to 0.5% in September.
As unemployment stimulus checks ended, more than 8 million workers in the United States quit their jobs which provided new evidence that the benefits were not keeping people from reentering the workforce. Still, nearly 30% of adults still had trouble paying usual household expenses as of early October as the harm to the economy and livelihoods from the covid-19 pandemic continues.
The prices of goods and services are high and the holiday season is also approaching, this is why people are hoping that Congress will another round of stimulus check payments in December.
Stimulus Check Update: Knowing The Build Back Better Act
A fourth stimulus check was not included in the Build Back Better Act or reconciliation bill which was approved by the House of Representatives on Friday 19 November. While a stimulus check was not included, the bill, if approved by the Senate would extend the current structure of the child tax credit another year, providing some relief to families.
This will be a boost for low-income families who previously could not claim the credit unless they had earned income over $2,500 prior to the changes made under the American Rescue Plan. Even then, parents would only gradually receive more of the credit as their income increased until they could claim the full credit.
By making the fully-refundable aspect of the Child Tax Credit permanent even if another extension can’t be pushed through next year, all taxpayers with eligible children will be able to claim $2,000 until 2025 when the credit will drop to $1,000 per child under 17.
