$250 one-time payments to Louisiana workers begin this week

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Payments start going out this week to Louisiana’s front-line workers who remained at grocery store checkouts, in health care facilities and on bus routes in the first months of the coronavirus outbreak, the revenue department said Tuesday.

Louisiana is offering $250 one-time payments, financed with federal relief aid, to as many as 200,000 people who meet eligibility requirements set by state lawmakers. Approved applicants will receive payment through a check or direct deposit into a bank account.

More than 205,000 people have applied, but not all meet the eligible job categories, according to Department of Revenue spokesman Byron Henderson. The agency is urging people to continue registering for the one-time payment at frontlineworkers.la.gov until the application period closes Oct. 31.

The hazard payments are available to workers with an adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less and who had to report to a job outside of their home for at least 200 hours from March 22 through May 14. They have to hold one of a list of jobs considered “essential critical infrastructure.”

Dollars for the payments come from $1.8 billion in direct congressional coronavirus aid sent to Louisiana.

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