PORTLAND — Hazard payments for Mainers who worked through the pandemic are set to start going out over the next couple of weeks.
The one-time disaster relief payments are for Mainers who kept the state running throughout 2020.
The funding comes from a bipartisan budget deal.
The payments will be issued starting in early November, with about 100,000 checks each week over a 5-6 week period.
The payments will be sent through the mail as a paper check.
The final payment amount will be calculated by taking the funding amount of nearly $150 million and dividing it by the number of people eligible.
The state expects payments to be around $275, but the final number is yet to be determined.
Checks will go to anyone who lived in Maine full-time and earned wages in the 2020 tax year, as long as they’ve filed a state tax return by October 31.
People who make more than $75,000 or $150,000 jointly aren’t eligible.