Fourth Stimulus Check Update: Thousands Of Iowa Residents To Get $1,400 By July

Iowa -- More than 2,000 people living in Johnson County in Iowa are set to receive one-time stimulus payments worth $1,400 as part of the local government’s response to rising prices.

Johnson County officials have set aside $2 million from the American Rescue Act to fund the upcoming round of relief payments under the Direct Assistance Program. While Iowans were allowed to file an application prior to last Friday’s deadline, not everyone who applied will receive the $1,400 checks.

Under the program’s eligibility requirements, a household of one must have an annual income of $45,370 or less to qualify. The threshold increases to $51,870 or less for a household of two and $64,805 for a household of four, according to Fingerlakes 1.

In addition to the income threshold, the recipient must be suffering from food or housing insecurity, job loss, or have been excluded from previous federal stimulus payments to qualify for the one-time $1,400 checks.

Individuals who are eligible for a federal program, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are also qualified to receive the relief payments.

All individuals who applied for the stimulus check will be contacted by Johnson County officials, regardless of whether they have been selected to receive the payments or not. People who may have made an error during the application are also being given between June 10 and June 17 to correct the mistake. The payments are expected to reach recipients in late June or early July.

Donna Brooks, the grants coordinator for Johnson County, said between 2,300 to 2,400 people will receive the checks. She added that she is confident that many people in Iowa would benefit from the checks.

"We hope that this program will provide the benefits we anticipated it would, which is local economic recovery and stimulation as well as household stabilization," she told Press-Citizen. "The community need was there, and this was a worthwhile investment of ARPA resources."

Johnson County’s stimulus payments come as gas prices are expected to reach an average of $5 per gallon as early as June 17. Currently, the national average is $4.62 per gallon.