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Certain Massachusetts residents will be eligible for $500 stimulus checks that will be sent out over the next week.
Governor Charlie Baker's administration announced Wednesday (March 23) that half a million low-income workers are eligible to receive the checks in the mail as part of the "Essential Employee Premium Pay Program," CBS Boston reports.
The initial mailed checks will be sent under the $460 million program approved by the Legislature signed into law in December that called for payments between $500 and $2,000 for essential employees who specifically continued to work in-person amid the state of emergency declared on March 10, 2020 during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The administration is determining the eligibility for the first round of payments based on residents' 2020 tax return information, which provides a faster way of assessing who worked in-person during the state of emergency and decided to limit the initial payments to $500 so more people could get money faster.
“Massachusetts residents will be eligible for first round payments if, based on filed 2020 Massachusetts tax returns, their income from employment was at least $12,750 – the equivalent to working 20 hours/week for 50 weeks at minimum wage as of 2020 – and their total income put them below 300% of the federal poverty level,” the administration said in a statement via CBS Boston.
Any individuals who collected unemployment compensation in 2020 will be ineligible for the first round of payments sent.