Next round of premium pay checks for eligible Massachusetts workers being mailed Monday

BOSTON – $500 checks for about 330,000 Massachusetts staff are going within the mail Monday as a part of the second spherical of the state’s “Important Worker Premium Pay Program.”

Half 1,000,000 low-income staff acquired the first spherical of funds in March, primarily based on their 2020 tax returns. For this second spherical, eligibility standards are comparable however decided by 2021 state tax returns. Those that collected a fee within the first spherical of this system or anybody who acquired unemployment compensation in 2021 aren’t eligible.   

Click on right here for extra details about eligibility.   

“The eligibility parameters for the second spherical of funds largely mirror these of the primary spherical, however standards have been up to date for annual adjustments in minimal wage and federal poverty degree calculations,” the administration stated in an announcement. “People might be eligible for funds if their 2021 earnings from employment was not less than $13,500 and their whole earnings put them at or beneath 300% of the federal poverty degree.”  

Single filers with no dependents can’t make over $38,640 to be able to get a verify. Married filers with two dependents can have a family earnings of as much as $79,500 to be eligible.  

As soon as the second spherical of funds is full, the state can have doled out greater than $400 million of the $460 million program accepted by the Legislature in December and funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

The laws Baker signed into regulation referred to as for funds of between $500 and $2,000 for important workers who labored in-person – not remotely – in the course of the state of emergency that was declared on March 10, 2020 and lasted for greater than a 12 months. However Baker’s administration, in an effort to get cash out the door as quick as attainable, is figuring out eligibility solely primarily based on tax return data, as there wasn’t a sooner approach to assess who labored in-person and who did not in the course of the state of emergency. And the administration determined to maintain the verify quantity at $500 to get cash to extra folks.  

Baker vetoed a piece of the invoice that will have arrange an advisory panel to find out who precisely can be eligible.

Anybody with questions on eligibility can contact a name heart at (866) 750-9803 Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.