If you pay any attention to the news (and I don’t blame you if you don’t), you’ve probably heard that Congress is suddenly eager to pass another coronavirus stimulus bill after months without progress. Why the sudden rush? I doubt it’s to get on Santa’s good list this year. It’s much more likely that they’re feeling pressure because a number of key provisions of the original CARES Act are set to expire at the end of this month. 

The CARES Act is the $2 trillion stimulus that was passed in March, back when everyone thought life would be back to normal by fall. Boy, were we wrong! Because they didn’t realize things would drag on as long as they have, Congress set a number of key benefits for individuals to expire on December 31, which is less than 4 weeks away. If nothing changes between now and then, these benefits will end along with 2020:

Protections Against Evictions

It’s hard to pay rent when you lose your job or your income gets cut. Not paying your rent usually gets you evicted. With so many people losing jobs and income, Congress didn’t want a housing crisis on top of the health crisis and employment crisis so they included protections against evictions in their bill. (It’s also hard to stay at home to avoid spreading germs when you no longer have a home.)

Right now, landlords are not allowed to evict “covered” people from residential property just because they cannot pay rent. However, that all changes on January 1, 2021, unless Congress takes action sooner.

Student Loan Deferment

A lot of people already believe that we have a student loan crisis in this country, and Congress didn’t want the pandemic to make things worse. So, they added student loan deferment to their stimulus bill. Since March, no one has had to make payments on their federal student loans, interest rates were dropped to 0%, and collections were halted on defaulted loans. 

This benefit was originally set to end on September 30, but then President Trump extended it until December 31. It was just announced that loan repayment will actually begin on January 31, 2021.  

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

Under normal circumstances, unemployment benefits are not available to everyone. They are for full-time employees and not self-employed individuals, independent contractors, or gig workers. The ranks of the exempt have been growing quickly in our modern digital economy and they now make up a significant portion of the labor force. 

Thankfully, the CARES Act gave states the right to expand unemployment benefits to cover those who are not traditional employees. Many have benefited from this provision in the law but unless something changes, it will be gone in a matter of weeks.

Extra Unemployment Benefit

When the CARES Act first passed, it provided an additional $600 weekly benefit paid for by the federal government. As a result, many low-income workers actually ended up earning more on unemployment than they had when they were working. It didn’t last too long and was eventually halved. Right now, the extra unemployment benefit is $300 a week and that will also expire on December 31, 2020. 

Extended Unemployment Benefit Period

Normal law allows for 26 weeks of federal unemployment benefits. But nothing is normal in 2020, is it? Because of the nature of the shutdowns and the resulting mass unemployment, the CARES Act extended the amount of time unemployment benefits could be provided to 39 weeks. These additional 3 months of unemployment benefits will soon expire with the coming of the new year.

What You Should Do About It

A lot of people may find themselves in a tough spot come January 1 if those benefits expire as planned. If you are one of them, now is the time to be planning out your response. What will you do without those benefits? Things could change, but it’s always better to have a plan that you don’t need than need a plan that you don’t have.

Finally, whether or not these changes affect you at all, I would encourage you to pray. Pray for our government leaders (whether or not you like them), that God would give them wisdom and help them work together. Pray for those who have lost jobs and income, that God would meet their needs and give them strategies for managing their finances with less. Most importantly, pray that God would use all the craziness of 2020 and whatever 2021 has in store to draw people to him so that they could experience a true savior and His peace and joy.