Talon Issue #104 - CoEds & CoVids"

COVID-19 STIMULUS PACKAGE

What this means as a college student

Dallas Mosley

The COVID-19 virus or better known as the Coronavirus has wiped through the world like wildfire. The USA has moved to the number one country with the most affected people in the world. With the total coming up to 165,594. Deaths are at 3,180, and recovered at 5,995. With the numbers that we have gotten, the government has decided to shut down all non-essential jobs, which are then restricted to what can be sold and what hours the companies can be open. But with all this going on, many people have been forced to file unemployment. With the economy going down the government decided to pass a Stimulus Package to help big and small businesses and also a one time check to everyone who meets the requirements. So how much is this check and how fast will it get sent out and how much will you get? So as many college students are out of school and working for right now because of the required quarantine, many of the college students who opted to live off-campus have to figure out how they can pay their rent and how they will keep themselves fed. So when they heard that they were going to get a Stimulus Check they thought it would be a blessing. Little did they know that the government would just pull the carpet off from under them. With the rules of this Stimulus Check, they have a tiered system of how much people will get from the government. This looks great for the college students but this is not what it looks like. If you were put down as a dependent on your parent’s taxes you will not receive a Stimulus Check. This is not a good thing for those students living off-campus and also not working. They will not see a cent of the money. As well as their parents won’t receive the $500 bonus check “A taxpayer is allowed to claim a fulltime student between the ages of 19 and 24 as a dependent, so the parent will not get $500 for a college student, nor can the college student generally claim $1,200,” says Holtzblatt. The parent will still receive their $1,200 check, if eligible.’’ This is not going to help the parents of the college students who are just sitting at home unable to work and unable to receive their own check. This may not be the best thing for the people in college and will not help the people who have college students sitting at home not making anything because of the working laws right now. The best thing the people can hope for is that we are able to get through this whole quarantine and back to work as quickly and safely as possible. And that we are able to get a hold of the COVID-19 Pandemic.