Half A Million Low-Income MA Residents Will Receive $500 Checks

BOSTON — Half a million lower-income workers in Massachusetts will be the first to be eligible for "Premium pay" bonuses starting in March, Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday.

Low-income workers who qualify will receive $500 checks in the mail from the COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay program, which was approved back in December as part of a $4 billion spending plan funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

Individuals will be eligible for the $500 payment if their income was at least $12,750 and their total income puts them below 300% on the federal poverty level.

In order to be eligible, a person's total income for their 2020 tax return must be below 300% of the federal poverty level. This means single filers with no dependents cannot make more than $38,280 to qualify. Someone who is married and has two dependents can have a household income of up to $78,600 to be eligible.

No one who received unemployment payments in 2020 will be eligible.

The first round of payments will be made based on the filer's 2020 tax returns. The next round of payments will be made from 2021 tax returns and after that, the program will be evaluated for more potential rounds.

There is no specific industry that is getting the checks, as anyone is eligible for the payment if they are below the federal poverty level, which is different from Baker's original plan designed to go to frontline employees who worked in-person during the first year of the pandemic.

Baker vetoed a section of the bill that would have set up an advisory panel to determine who exactly would be eligible to execute the plan faster, his office said.

"The law provided for the Administration to design the program and develop eligibility parameters that will ensure this critical support is provided quickly to deserving workers across the Commonwealth," Baker's office said in a statement.

A total of $250 million will be mailed out to 500,000 Bay State residents by the end of March, Baker's Office said Tuesday. With $500 million set aside by the Legislature, and $40 million going to fund previous agreements with state employee unions, the state will still have about $200 million left over. Baker's office said they will release plans to distribute the remaining money in the future.

"I was pleased to sign the COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay program into law in December, and our Administration has worked quickly to design the parameters for the program with plans to efficiently begin distribution of these payments by the end of March," Baker said in a statement. "This program will support those workers who served our communities, especially early in the pandemic."

Checks will be sent automatically in the mail and no additional paperwork needs to be filed to qualify.