Last week, the number of new cases in the United States averaged over 120,000 per day. The last time COVID-19 spread so rapidly was in early February, just weeks before President Joe Biden's pandemic relief package's third round of stimulus checks began to be distributed.
Could another wave of direct payments be in the works now that the United States is besieged by COVID-19 Delta variant infections?
The fourth stimulus check is still unlikely to happen
Despite the country's COVID-19 setback, the broader economy appears to not need emergency help. In July, unemployment fell from 5.9% to 5.4%, and businesses generated 943,000 new jobs, which was higher than projected.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, if economic growth continues at the same rate as it did in the first two quarters of 2021, the GDP may increase by as much as 6.5 percent this year. That would be the most impressive performance since 1984.
Congress is presently on summer break, which will last until mid-September. Priorities for legislators before they departed Washington included a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and a $3.5 trillion Democratic budget bill with increased social spending.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee wrote to President Joe Biden earlier this year, requesting that the president roll stimulus payments into the "families plan" he announced earlier this year. The social expenditure bill is now based on proposals from that plan.
The White House, on the other hand, has not proposed that relief payments be included in the bill. Instead, officials have pointed out that Americans already receive plenty of other forms of help, such as emergency rental assistance and monthly child tax credit payments, as per MoneyWise via Yahoo.
What to anticipate instead?
Although millions of people are still unemployed and the disappointing Delta spike is injecting new uncertainty into the economy, a fourth stimulus check is unlikely. Here's a deeper look, as well as some alternatives if you're having trouble paying your expenses and dealing with debt:
Monthly stimulus payment in Child Tax Credit
The Child Tax Credit payments are part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, a stimulus bill passed into law to help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The stimulus payments will total $3,600 for children under the age of six and $3,000 for children aged seven to seventeen.
According to AS.com, between July and December, half of the entire credit is distributed monthly, with $300 for children aged 6 and under and $250 for those aged 7 and over. The remaining half will be paid when households file their taxes for 2021.
Check your mailbox because a new stimulus check should be arriving in the next day or so for millions of people. That's according to the IRS's most recent child tax credit update, which revealed some preliminary information on the second batch of child tax credit payments. This is a new stimulus check that will give families with qualifying children a few hundred dollars.
Stimulus check for teachers and essential workers
Several states have been giving out $1,000 stimulus checks to teachers and other essential workers. This additional payment was viewed as a gesture of goodwill toward all those who were on the front lines throughout the pandemic. In other cases, the extra income serves as a form of insurance against worker departure.
Several Georgia legislators have already approved the $1,000 payments, which will cover nearly every member of the staff and educators, as per Digital Market News. A large number of canteen employees, as well as bus drivers, have received the additional stimulus check payment.
According to some sources, the stimulus checks would cost a total of $200 million. In California, $2.8 million was paid to Berkeley school districts, which was used to reward teachers with a 3.5 percent incentive ahead of the new school year.
Surprise stimulus checks to families with two kids
Families with children under the age of 13 may get an $8,000 "surprise" stimulus payment in the form of a tax credit for childcare costs. Working American families that meet specific conditions may receive thousands in more stimulus payments as a result of the new changes to the Child and Dependent Care Credit for 2021.
Per The Sun, it covers up to $8,000 in childcare expenditures, as well as costs associated with caring for a spouse or parent who is unable to care for themselves. For families with two or more dependents, the cost rises to $16,000.
Daycare, after-school programs, nannies, day camp, and other forms of child care are all included in these costs. The highest amount you could claim for several children used to be $6,000. The credit is intended to help people to return to work while avoiding large fees for care expenditures incurred while they were away.
Related Article: Fourth Stimulus Check Possibility: Here's What Jobs Data Suggests About Another Round of Payments
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