Blacks, Latinos and the poor less likely to get $1,200 coronavirus stimulus checks, new report says

WASHINGTON – With another round of stimulus checks in the works, a new study concludes that people who are poor, Black or Latino were less likely to get the $1,200 payments distributed last spring under a new federal law aimed at blunting the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The study, by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, concluded that while the rollout of the cash payments was a success in many ways, there were significant disparities by income, race, ethnicity and family citizenship in terms of who received the money.

Thirty percent of adults younger than age 65 reported that their families had not received the stimulus payments or that they didn’t know if the money had arrived as of late May.

Just six in 10 adults (nearly 59 percent) with incomes at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level reported receiving the payments. Nearly 74 percent of white adults reported getting the checks, compared to almost 69 percent of Black adults and nearly 64 percent of Hispanics.

The report cited various reasons for the disparities, such as some people having no bank account or lacking access to the internet. Among Latinos, some adults may have been ineligible because they or their spouse were undocumented or did not qualify as residents of the United States, the report said.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/20/coronavirus-blacks-latinos-poor-less-likely-get-1-200-checks/5471086002/