Stimulus Check Latest: Will You Get A Fourth Relief Payment?

CBS Dallas/Fort Worth

May 8, 2021

A possible fourth stimulus check remains a popular topic with the third round of economic relief payments almost concluded. About 164 million payments of up to $1,400 per person have been issued since the third stimulus package passed in mid-March. Another 1.1 million paper checks and EIP cards should go out this week. And plus-up payments, for those who didn’t receive what they were due, have also been going out. Together they add up to most of the $422 billion allotted in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

These relief payments are part of a broad effort to cushion COVID’s economic impact on households and support the economy while the pandemic recovery continues. The stimulus package also extends unemployment benefits, enhances the child tax credit, and much more. The recent round of checks follows the $1,200 CARES Act payments at the pandemic’s outset and the $600 payments from January.

In the first quarter of 2021, the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 6.4 percent, faster than the 4.3 percent rate from the fourth quarter of 2020. The annual rate of growth could reach double-digits in the second quarter. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP), an estimate of economic activity in the economy, is close to where it was before the pandemic. Experts believe it will return to its pre-pandemic level this summer. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, “the increase in first quarter GDP reflected the continued economic recovery, reopening of establishments, and continued government response related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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