Are low income people hurting financially from covid?

amother

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 12:24 am

We keep hearing about helping the low income people deal with the financial blow. I don’t mean to sound harsh but I don’t understand how low income ppl are hurting now. If you were on food stamps you got more cuz of Covid. If your job paid you 50k or less you ended up the same or ahead with the extra 600. On top of it all many people got the stimulus.

It seems to me that the people being hurt are the wealthier people. Store owners sitting on tons of inventory. Someone making 150k who was laid off - the extra 600 a week is not gonna cut it when the mortgage can be 4K.

Am I missing something here or is my observation correct?

amother

Ecru

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 12:33 am

We're pretty low income, and yes we did much BETTER financially through COVID.

The extra EBT was certainly helpful, because now it covers our entire monthly food budget instead of just a chunk of it.

We are self-employed so we missed out on the very generous unemployment bonus, but we did get a pretty big PPP loan that from what I understand will be fully forgiven. We also had some level of income, even if it was less.

That all plus the stimulus enabled us to cut our debt down by 2/3 or so, which is amazing for us. We caught up on tuition and loans from other individuals, got our credit cards down to $7,000 or so (instead of the $13,000 they were before), and paid back our poor son's Bar Mitzvah money.

Don't get too excited, we still can't afford a car and I'm still wearing ragged clothes and ancient shoes, but we are definitely in a better place than before B"H.

Someone who took a drastic salary cut or had their business go down the tubes, even if their bank account balance is higher than ours and their standard of living is higher, is certainly suffering far more than we are.

amother

Smokey

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 12:46 am

We are low income but not getting food stamps so not much help there.
My husband is self employed but got less money from unemployment that what he usually makes.
Someone who is low income, usually lives month to month so yes we're happy we ended up getting unemployment but if you stop working in march and get unemployment at the end of june you still have to figure out how to live in between without savings!
Stimulus was nice but with a large family not enough!!
Don't try to compare who has it harder, everyone has to make the best of their own situation!
(I did hear of someone who was making $200/month from tutoring who applied for unemployment and got the extra $600/week ! I guess he came out ahead! LOL

)

amother

Aqua

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 2:01 am

I have the same q as you OP. It’s pretty simple math: people who generally make less money got their usual salary or more with unemployment. Plus extra food stamps. Others were making less than usual for months at a time or watched their business get destroyed. Many didn’t get the first stimulus check.

And now they’re talking about only giving the second stimulus to ppl making less than 40k. Banging head

amother

Beige

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 4:55 am

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

I’ve never been an economic genius but can’t figure out for the life of me what they’re thinking about the 40k. I posted about this months ago how poor people are making more and how those who made over 100k now can’t pay their mortgage or bills even with the stimulus and extra unemployment. Won’t that kill the economy more than poor people still being poor like before? Happens to be for us it close to evened out because I worked very few hours and with unemployment made the extra $600 which was well more than I was making. My husband was only bringing in about $1300 from his unemployment, plus my extra $600 brought us closer to what he had been bringing home. Student loans are on hold so that also helped a lot. BH he found a job and will be going off unemployment, but they’re paying him a bit lower so it would be difficult for us if they cut off the $600 from my unemployment checks and only gave stimulus to people making under 40k. I’m also wondering will they once again be looking at previous tax returns or at people who are unemployed? Because at this point with so many previously well paid people out of work, the tax returns are meaningless. Sorry for rambling, just seems to make no sense to me.

zaq

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 9:02 am

You never heard of the working poor? People who earn too much to qualify for government programs but not enough to make ends meet? Or just enough to make ends meet but not enough to have any savings, so when they lose a job they have no cushion? Why is that so hard for you to believe or understand?

happyone

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 9:06 am

zaq wrote:

Working poor is most of us middle class. No benefits and full taxes.
When my friends brag about their stimulus purchases , I tell them to sign my name on it because my taxes sponsor their shopping spree Smile

.

I'm still waiting for a stimulus of some sort.
They go by your 2018 tax return, but what about all of those that lost wages or jobs or greatly reduced income NOW???
system makes no sense.

thunderstorm

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 9:12 am

zaq wrote:

This. My DH works two jobs. One is his own business and one is a part time job with wages. His business provides a service and his clients businesses all took a hit and were more or less closed so he was out of work for the most part .
He was able to collect unemployment for his other job but it was less than his normal earnings.
We are not eligible for food stamps or govt programs and we didn’t receive the stimulus check either because we had not filed taxes for 2018 yet intentionally due to someone else using my kids SS#s and an ongoing dispute with the IRS. So we definitely felt it. But perhaps, because we struggle financially always , we were used to the struggle. Whereas , people who earned a high income feel the loss that much more. But we definitely didn’t come out ahead. Baruch HaShem we were able to keep all of our jobs and that’s a bracha in itself.

amother

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 9:38 am

zaq wrote:

Working poor is not low income. For the purpose of my point working poor is the same as wealthy. People that the extra unemployment still didnt make it to their full precovid salary. Those are the people that need the help right now. The low wage earners are better off now yet I still keep hearing about helping them.....

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 9:45 am

We don't have food stamps even though we are supposed to get P-EBT I still haven't seen it. (I got a letter stating we're elgibile but the amount on my card still comes up as 0.) We got a nice stimulus check. DH took a cut in his wages but he worked throughout so no unemployment for him. So far it pretty much evened out. However, once I filed for unemployment that's where we did well, so BH we came out ahead from this pandemic.

amother

Firebrick

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 9:46 am

Hi OP
I believe you are correct. Or at least for my family, you are correct.
I consider us to be low wage earners. We earn approx $70,000 gross between us.
With Covid, my husband has still been paid by his job, he is a teacher and he's been teaching on zoom.
I have not been able to work, but unemployment has paid me a couple hundred more each month than my usual salary!

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 1:04 pm

I think it depends on the family.
I didn't come out ahead. You can't use extra food stamps money to buy anything else that you need and it doesn't cover the job I lost due to covid... I didn't qualify for unemployment.
My kids' summer plans fell through and I have had to spend way more money to keep them busy.
I've had to pay for masks and sanitizer and entertainment and whatever.
So I'm at lower income and higher expenses and the government isn't paying for that.
My husband's work hours also have been reduced due to the kids not being settled. Again, no PUA.

amother

Babypink

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 2:52 pm

We actually fell through the cracks. DH was looking for a job when covid hit. We didn't qualify for unemployment because he wasn't working. It was pesach and the kimcha depischa we'd normally get was slashed.

Now Baruch HaShem our situation has improved. But anyone who needs to rely on tzedakah for whatever reason is going to be struggling right now, because the donors are struggling.

That was a very convoluted way of saying that those who were already getting assistance still need the assistance, and lots of the usual donors are unable to donate, so fundraising has turned more aggressive than usual.

FranticFrummie

Tue, Jul 21 2020, 3:04 pm

Not everyone lives in the US.
Not everyone qualifies for unemployment.
People in low income type jobs often don't have any savings.
Some people make just *barely* too much money to qualify for benefits.

Due to social distancing, off the books people like cleaning ladies, babysitters, and tutors are out of work, and cannot claim any kind of compensation.

Anyone who works for a company that pays under the table or in cash only, cannot claim benefits without getting their employer in big trouble.

Not everyone knows the ins and outs of how to access benefits, or what their rights are.