U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will introduce the Helping Parents During COVID Act of 2020 to provide immediate financial relief for working families whose children’s education has been disrupted by the pandemic.
Senator Hawley’s bill would provide these working families $1,200 in direct cash assistance per month every month through June 2021 to help cover lost work shifts or wages. This bill will also create a fully-refundable tax credit of $800 per child to reimburse parents for the costs of education expenses.
The direct cash assistance and the credit will be means-tested. Both the cash assistance and the credit begin to phase out at $75,000 for individual filers and $150,000 those for filing jointly.
“I have been calling for assistance for working families since day one and the return of the school year only makes the issue that much more urgent. School closures, disruption of the standard academic calendar, hybrid and distance-learning models, and other changes have forced parents to seek alternative work arrangements or leave the workforce altogether. Since the government has asked them to deal with these realities, it falls on us to help them through it. Working families need relief as soon as possible,” said Senator Josh Hawley.
