COVID-19 is still impacting American families and businesses. Do you need financial assistance now?

This article was originally posted by the FTC. See the original article here.

While some aspects of American life have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact this country, and it may be hard to figure out what help you can get now. There’s still aid available through the federal government, as well as your state, local, or tribal government. Some are automatic benefits and others require an application.

Automatic benefits:

• Child Tax Credit. If you have kids, you may have already gotten money from the IRS because of the Child Tax Credit. The IRS has more information about whether you qualify and what to do if you want to unenroll from advanced payments.
• Student Loans. Eligible federal student loan payments are on pause until January 31, 2022. You can still make payments on your principal balance or any interest you accrued before March 13, 2020, but until the pause is over, eligible loans are set to a 0% interest rate.

Benefits to apply for:

If someone contacts you out of the blue offering help and asks for your financial or personal information, that’s a sure sign of a scam. And know that the government won’t ask you to pay anything to get COVID-related financial help. If you spot a scam, report it to your state attorney general’s office and the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.