We have an answer, finally, to a question everyone has been asking since the $1.9 trillion stimulus law’s passage. The one that made a third wave of stimulus payments for $1,400 possible. Some six months on, and with the pandemic still ranging? It’s natural to wonder whether there will there be a fourth stimulus check. Will we indeed get yet another payment, or was check #3 the end?
Unfortunately, the answer is a bit more unsatisfying than a straightforward yes or no. A fourth check will indeed be available, but it depends on where you live in the US.
Will there be a fourth stimulus check?
Stimulus checks worth $1,000, for example, are going out this week to a subset of Connecticut residents. It’s part of that state’s “Back to Work” plan.
Announced a few months ago, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont’s “Back to Work” plan gives eligible applicants who certify their re-entry into the workforce after eight weeks off of long-term unemployment a $1,000 check. The state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund is supporting these payments, which are expected to go to an estimated 10,000 or so recipients.
Lamont earlier this week announced the first round of these $1,000 stimulus checks. They’re going out to more than 1,500 eligible applicants, among the initial group of workers participating in this program. According to his office, about $10 million has been allocated. “Many workers who were displaced during the early months in the pandemic and faced long-term unemployment are now transitioning back into the workforce and starting to rebuild,” Governor Lamont said. “This one-time bonus payment will help some of those workers pay for the critical things they need to get back to work, including childcare.”
States don’t have to wait on the federal government
Meanwhile, the question of whether or not there will be a fourth stimulus check often presupposes that its source would be from the federal level. But there’s nothing stopping individual states from taking steps like this. Connecticut is one example of this.
Other states, including California, are also sending out these payments. Which, again, amount to a fourth stimulus check for many residents.
California’s Golden State Stimulus program, for example, will provide 5.7 million additional stimulus checks for residents there. One-time $600 payments are going out to households who got the California Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for 2020. Also, taxpayers with Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs) who didn’t receive $1,200 stimulus checks last spring or $600 federal payments earlier this year will also get $600 payments from the state.
Furthermore, any ITIN taxpayers who also qualify for the California EITC will receive a total of $1,200.
