Last year, CWLA joined hundreds of organizations to engage in the vitally important and difficult task of helping households who don’t usually file a tax return get their stimulus checks. According to the U.S. Treasury, about 8 million eligible families have not received the first stimulus check.
Today, those eligible people haven’t gotten their money and may now risk missing out on three rounds of stimulus checks, a total of $3,600. These include some of the hardest-to-reach people who need direct support. Outreach to families with immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, and people with limited internet access are also needed as these populations may also qualify for more money through 2021 tax credit expansions like the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
The third round of stimulus checks is different from the first two rounds in that the requirements have been expanded to allow more families with immigrants to qualify, including 2.2 million children who were previously left out. Also, all dependents, regardless of ages, qualify for an additional payment of $1.400.
Outreach to harder-to-reach populations includes people with very low incomes, families with immigrants, and predominantly black, indigenous, and people of color and adults not raising children in the home. These populations normally do not file a tax return, did not submit information to the non-filer tool, do not know they are eligible, or lack of knowledge of free resources to file taxes.
Outreach should include encouraging people to file a tax return now or before May 17, 2021, to claim the first, second, and third stimulus checks and claim other tax credits if they qualify. Outreach should include encouraging individuals to file a tax return to claim the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), includes more eligible people, including those who have not filed taxes before, the expanded CTC, and Child and Dependent Tax Credit (CDTC).
For more information and key messages, go to https://www.eitcoutreach.org/.
