Nearly 500,000 Americans Are Getting Direct Payments This Week

A general view of a for sale board by residential town houses on May 26, 2024 in Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom. In Pennsylvania, senior homeowners and renters will benefit from a rebate this week.

Beginning this week, almost 500,000 Americans in Pennsylvania are set to receive direct payments.

The state approved the rebates for seniors based on their 2023 property taxes via the Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program.

Both renters and homeowners who make less than $45,000 are eligible for the checks, and the state said about 442,000 residents would benefit from the payments. That marks a 50 percent uptick from the 2022 rebate program.

Altogether, Pennsylvania secured $226 million in funding for the rebates, which was also a 50 percent boost from last year's amount.

Governor Josh Shapiro said: "The same relief people were getting 20 years ago, it didn't keep up with the rising cost of living. And, because when you got an additional amount of money on your social security, that actually kicked a lot of seniors off of getting the relief they needed with the Property Tax/Rent Rebate," reported WJET, a news outlet in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Check distribution began on July 1, so eligible seniors should keep their eyes out for incoming payments.

The payments should help seniors keep up with inflation, which is still above 3 percent across the Consumer Price Index, said Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

"Virtually every expense that comes with owning a home has increased in recent years, and that includes property taxes," Beene told Newsweek. "And whereas other payments involving owning a home go away with loan fulfillment, like a mortgage, property taxes are a permanent reality of owning a house throughout one's lifespan."

Seniors in particular often see their budgets stretched, as they're living on fixed incomes courtesy of Social Security or pension plans.

"A rebate for low-income seniors is a great way of targeting assistance to a group that has been devastated by inflation over the past few years," Beene said. "This rebate will allow seniors to be able to allocate their money to other areas, like medical care and groceries, that have seen similar upticks in pricing."

Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, cautioned seniors that the additional dollars could affect whether their Social Security benefits become taxable in the future.

"The increased amount of income may cause your Social Security to become taxed at higher levels, so it's an important consideration on the net effect of overall dollars," Thompson told Newsweek.

Still, for low-income seniors, Thompson called the payments "much needed relief."

"As we know, many states have been experimenting with ways to provide relief to taxpayers," Thompson said. "After the pandemic, many states saw a surplus in state coffers mainly from pandemic spending and sales taxes, and also from U.S. government relief sent to the states. States are trying to find ways to give that money back to the people in the most effective and impactful ways."

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