Fourth stimulus checks are being sent in 2022 under the child and dependent tax credit and as part of the American Rescue Plan.

Prices for American consumers are rising at their fastest annual rate since June 1982. But the impact is felt more amongst those on the lowest incomes, with the least room to manage.

Rising inflation is also putting pressure on President Biden as he tries to pass his $1.9tn (£1.4tn) social spending bill.

Year 2021 Economic Impact Payments were calculated off of a person’s 2020 or 2019 return, however eligible dependents who became a member of the family in 2021 might not have been included in the calculation nor the payment.

Most people have already had their full payment come in, but those who had eligible children in 2021 are able to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on their next tax return.

The Economic Impact Payments, otherwise referred to as stimulus checks, were sent out during 2021 and these are advance payments of the Recovery Rebate Credit.

IRS has issued more than 169 million payments in the third round of direct stimulus aid, with more than 2 million people in July receiving the $1,400 checks. But some lawmakers are pushing for a fourth round of stimulus aid that would effectively send recurring payments until the pandemic ends.

So far, the federal response to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has paid out $3,200 to eligible adults: $1,200 under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act in March 2020; $600 in a December relief measure; and $1,400 under the American Rescue Plan signed in March by President Joe Biden.

Despite that financial assistance, millions of Americans remain in financial distress, and the spread of the Delta variant is creating new economic headwinds. Almost one-quarter of Americans struggled to pay their household expenses in the previous week, according to new Census survey data that polled people during the last two weeks of August.

The plus-up payments are additional stimulus checks that are sent out to people who were sent a stimulus check based on their 2019 tax return or information that was on the Social Security Administration’s system.

If you are a taxpayer in the USA whose income was lower in 2020 than it was in 2019, then you are eligible to receive what is being referred to as a plus-up payment.