The legislative assembly of the state of Connecticut has sanctioned a bonus payment program for essential workers. The program goes by the name Premium Pay Program or Hero Pay.
It is decided to boost the program by 75 million US Dollars in relation to House Bill 6001 which was signed by Ned Lamont, the Governor of Connecticut. It is issued as Winter Relief Checks and is set to go out from this week onwards.
What Is The Winter Relief Check About?
The program was launched earlier on November 29, 2022, with an aim to provide financial assistance to the essential workers of the state.
The workers under the category of essential workers are defined as those from the private sector who were on the frontline during the critical time of the pandemic from March 10, 2020, and May 7, 2022.
They are the ones who did not have any other remote work option at that time. The authorities had released information that specified the details, eligibility criteria, and deadline to apply for the program.
What Is The Eligibility?
The Premium Pay program has made it mandatory that only the applicants who meet the criteria put forward by the authorities will be granted the amount.
An application is considered eligible:
- The applicant has to be an essential worker.
- The applicant should have contributed towards the pandemic period on the specified period.
- The essential worker must have served under the jurisdiction of the state of Connecticut in the prescribed time period.
- The essential worker should have worked in the private sector.
How Much Amount Would Be Received?
Essential workers with a full-time working status and pay below 100,000 US Dollars would receive an amount near to 1,000 US Dollars.
The bonuses decided for the program also differ as per the pay range. A worker can get a maximum bonus of 800 US Dollars whereas, the bonus can not go below 200 US Dollars.
- Essential workers with pay between 90,000 US Dollars and 100,000 US Dollars would receive a bonus of 200 US Dollars.
- Essential workers with pay between 80,000 US Dollars and 90,000 US Dollars would receive a bonus of 250 US Dollars.
- Essential workers with pay between 70,000 US Dollars and 80,000 US Dollars would receive a bonus of 500 US Dollars.
- Essential workers with pay between 60,000 US Dollars and 70,000 US Dollars would receive a bonus of 750 US Dollars.
- Essential workers with pay between 50,000 US Dollars and 60,000 US Dollars would receive a bonus of 800 US Dollars.
When Would The Amount Be Received?
The state of Connecticut has informed that the bonus would start to go out from the 1st of February onwards. The payment would take more time, to be received by the approved applicants, as more time is taken for the issuing.
A check would be issued in the names of more than 150,000 essential workers. Another set of workers consisting of a number of 120,000 would receive the amount as direct deposits in their bank accounts.
More than 30,000 workers had submitted the application via post. Their details have not been made available in the electronic data.
Although they would also receive payments and bonuses in their mail as paper checks. The paper checks would take more time to receive and should only be expected within a time of six to seven weeks.
Who Would Receive The Amount?
The last date to apply for the New Winter Relief program was on October 1, 2022. After the shutdown of the application portal, more than 155,000 applications received a status of approval.
This had caused the state to fall short of the resource fund that was approved for the program. This issue is now being resolved by the additional 75 million US Dollars that got sanctioned.
As of the plan that was introduced earlier it was decided that the beneficiaries would be classified into different sections on the basis of their pay and the benefit received by each of the respectable sections would also be different.
Those who served in the same prescribed time period for the same chase but under federal, state, or municipal governments would not receive the fund.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has released a list of categories of essential workers, and the beneficiaries would be the ones those who have served as:
- healthcare personnel,
- child care personnel, and
- teachers.
Further portions of the list include workers in the::
- food and agriculture section,
- workers in manufacturing units,
- workers in grocery stores and supermarkets,
Those who served as:
- public transit workers,
- in transportation and logistics,
- in shelter and housing,
- in public safety,
- in energy,
- in IT, and in communication
would also be benefitted.
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Others would be the workers in:
- accounting,
- tax preparation,
- bookkeeping,
- payroll services,
- legal counsel and
- prosecution,
- parole offices and
- probation offices,
- insurance carriers and related activities,
- pet care,
- religious organizations,
- pharmacies and drug stores,
- offices of physicians,
- mental health specialists,
- offices of dentists,
- offices of chiropractors,
- offices of podiatrists,
- offices of optometrists,
- offices of physical therapists
- offices of occupational, and speech therapists, and
- offices of audiologists,
- offices of all other miscellaneous health practitioners,
- kidney dialysis centers,
- outpatient (OP) mental health and substance abuse centers,
- family planning centers,
- HMO medical centers,
- freestanding ambulatory surgical and emergency centers,
- medical laboratories,
- diagnostic imaging centers,
- home health care services,
- ambulance services,
- blood and organ banks,
- general medical and surgical hospitals,
- psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals,
- residential intellectual and developmental disability facilities,
- nursing care facilities,
- residential mental health and substance abuse facilities,
- continuing care retirement communities,
- assisted living facilities for the elderly, child and youth services,
- services for persons with disabilities,
- services for senior citizens,
- funeral homes and funeral services,
- cemeteries and crematories,
- motor vehicle and parts dealers,
- electronic shopping and mail-order houses,
- all modes of transportation:
- air,
- rail,
- water,
- truck,
- couriers and messengers,
- graphic design services,
- automobile driving schools,
- gasoline stations,
- mining, support activities for mining,
- oil and gas extraction,
- pipeline transportation,
- environmental consulting services
- software publishers
- data processing, and related services
- internet publishing and broadcasting
- computer systems design and related services
- computer and office machine repair and maintenance
- consumer electronics repair and maintenance
- communication equipment repair and maintenance
- web search portals
- news syndicates
- waste management and remediation services
- telemarketing bureaus and other contact centers
- monetary authorities – central bank
- administration of urban planning and
- administration of the community and rural development
- administration of economic programs
- national security and international affairs
- space research and technology
- car washes
- bowling centers
- metal ore mining
- support activities for metal mining
- nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying
Those who are:
- furniture and home furnishing merchant wholesalers
- photographic equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers
- other commercial equipment merchant wholesalers
- toy wholesalers
- hobby goods and supplies merchant wholesalers
- nonresidential property managers
- recyclable material merchant wholesalers
- watch, jewelry, precious metal, and precious stone, and merchant wholesalers
- apparel, piece goods, and notions merchant wholesalers
- tobacco and tobacco product merchant wholesalers
- boat dealers
- fuel dealers
- art dealers
- florists
- lessors of nonresidential buildings
- lessors of self-storage units and small warehouses
- lessors of other real estate property
Those who in:
- gift, novelty, and souvenir stores
- used merchandise stores
- fitness and recreational sports centers
- custom compounding of purchased resins
- photographic film, paper, plate, and chemical manufacturing
- lawn and garden tractor manufacturing
- home lawn and garden equipment manufacturing
- manufacturing and reproducing magnetic and optical media
- jewelry and silverware manufacturing
- doll, toy, and game manufacturing
- musical instrument manufacturing
- gasket, packing and sealing device manufacturing
- fastener, button, needle, and pin manufacturing
- Pet and Pet Supplies Stores
- Office Supplies and Stationery Stores
- Landscape Architectural Services
- Employment Placement Agencies
- Drycleaning and Laundry Services
- Court Reporting and Stenotype Services
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