April 21, 2020 — Once they acknowledged that the current coronavirus pandemic, in addition to its public health consequences, would cause an economic disaster, Congress and the administration in Washington, D.C., established a $2.2-trillion economic relief program. The program was designed to put money in the pockets of millions of newly unemployed workers and to help thousands of small businesses keep workers on the payroll.
While the federal programs are designed to provide substantial aid, so far they have done little to help the thousands of entrepreneurial Maine fishermen who are self-employed and don’t qualify for ordinary unemployment insurance benefits. It is an open question when any help will be forthcoming.
“The state of Maine continues to await guidance from the federal government on guidelines to expand unemployment to self-employed persons,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said Friday. “The only source of info is the state. They continue to tell self-employed not to file because the application will result in denial since the program is not set up.”
On March 27, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that, among other provisions, authorized one-time “economic impact payments” of $1,200 to adult U.S. residents with incomes of under $99,000 plus an additional payment of $500 for each child in a household. According to the U.S. Treasury, the first payments were issued last week. Some payments were to be transferred by direct deposit into taxpayers’ bank accounts, but as of Monday many people were still waiting for the money to appear.