$850 stimulus for Maine: can you apply if you are receiving other state aid programs?
The state-wide relief program will see payments worth $850 per person sent out to Maine residents from June onwards.
Price rises have caused significant financial problems for millions of households all across the United States, and lawmakers in Maine have recently passed a state-funded relief program that will send out one-off payments worth $850 per person.
Gov. Janet Mills approved the proposal which is designed to help residents deal with the “increased costs as a result of pandemic-driven inflation, ranging from higher energy costs to increased prices of everyday goods.”
The $850 Maine relief payments are available for residents who already receive some form of financial aid or who get Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), provided they satisfy the eligibility criteria.
Who is eligible to claim the $850 Maine stimulus check?
It is estimated that around 858,000 Maine residents are eligible to receive the $850 support payment. To trigger the payment they simply have to file a Maine individual income tax return for 2021, as a full-time resident, by 31 October 2022.
The claimant must be a filer, rather than a dependent on some else’s tax return, and must have an adjusted gross income that falls below the upper threshold:
- $100,000, for individual filers
- $150,000, for head of household filers
- $200,000, for couples filing jointly
You do not have to have paid a certain amount of tax to be eligible for the payment, and you can receive the support even if you have an unpaid tax bill owed to the state.
However people who are not usually required to file a tax return will have to do so to trigger a payment. If you’re not sure how to submit a 2021 Maine individual income tax filing, head over to Cash Maine for support.
When will the $850 stimulus check arrive?
As was the case with the federal stimulus checks sent out earlier in the pandemic, the Maine support payments will be distributed in a series of waves to prevent the administrative body from being overwhelmed.
The first round of relief checks will be mailed out in June 2022, although it is not yet known how big that first wave of payments will be. The distribution process will continue on a rolling basis for the remainder of 2022 as more tax returns are received.
The relief checks will be sent via USPS to whatever address is listed on your 2021 Maine individual income tax return. Unlike the national stimulus checks, all payments in Maine will be sent out as a physical check.