Stimulus Update: What COVID-Era Programs Will Continue in 2022?

January 8, 2022

2 min Read

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It’s been nearly two years since the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the United States, creating economic chaos and leading to a series of federal stimulus programs to help struggling individuals and businesses. Many of those programs have run their course and are no longer available, but a couple remain.

Among the programs that have gone by the wayside are federal stimulus payments and enhanced Child Tax Credit payments. While there has been recent talk that stimulus payments might be revived because of the Omicron variant, many experts doubt that will happen.

It’s also unlikely that another round of enhanced CTC payments — which were last issued on Dec. 15 — will be approved by lawmakers.

Similarly, Americans who received an extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits during the pandemic won’t be seeing that again, Charlotte’s WCNC reported. The Labor Department discontinued that program in the fall.

However, there are two COVID-era programs that will continue, at least for a while. One of them is the pause in payments for Americans with federal student loan debt.

On Dec. 22, 2021, the Department of Education extended the student loan payment pause through May 1. It had been set to expire on Jan. 31. According to the department’s Federal Student Aid office, the pause includes the following relief measures for eligible loans:

A suspension of loan payments
A 0% interest rate
Stopped collections on defaulted loans

Another program that will continue is expanded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Those benefits were due to expire at the end of September, FingerLakes 1 reported. But these 22 states decided to continue paying them every month (check with your state’s appropriate agency to find out how long the enhanced benefits will last):