{"id":433,"date":"2025-04-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/?p=433"},"modified":"2025-04-11T22:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T03:59:39","slug":"get-my-payment-illinois-coalition-returns-to-help-chicago-with-rising-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/get-my-payment-illinois-coalition-returns-to-help-chicago-with-rising-cost-of-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Get My Payment Illinois Coalition Returns to Help Chicago with Rising Cost of Living"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2023, when we shut down our pandemic era coalition, we never thought we\u2019d open it up again just two years later. Stimulus checks were winding down and so had the philanthropic funding that had kept teams like ours going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019d managed to help over 220,000 people get clear information about how to receive their stimulus checks through our website alone. Thousands of others had received help from nonprofits, schools, libraries, or local government agencies we\u2019d trained, given mini grants, or shared materials with.Elders and people who have limited literacy or difficulty using a computer got help through our call lines with trained VITA volunteers. We\u2019d shared what we\u2019d learned about just how hard it was to access pandemic-era stimulus checks and tax credits when you\u2019re low-income, homeless, coming out of an abusive relationship, or don\u2019t have access to technology, among other challenges. Along with other partners around the country, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/chicago\/blog\/righting-backwards-policy-making-sure-second-stimulus-checks-reach-hardest-hit-illinoisans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">our lessons learned<\/a> had helped change how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/chicago\/blog\/improving-cash-assistance-delivery-lessons-from-the-cares-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stimulus checks<\/a> and other tax credits are distributed and talked about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we learned <a href=\"https:\/\/directfile.irs.gov\/?utm_source=National-Nonprofit&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Cfa147&amp;utm_id=directfile&amp;utm_content=QRcode\">Archivo directo<\/a> would be implemented in Illinois in January 2025, we were thrilled. Our team had seen firsthand how challenging it can be for hardworking people who desperately need a financial boost each year to access tax refunds they are eligible for. Some low-income, essential workers were eligible for thousands of dollars and had no idea. We\u2019d heard in interviews with parents how scared they were of making a mistake and met grandparents who couldn\u2019t get the Child Tax Credit even though they had custody of their grandchildren and were raising them. We\u2019d heard from parents making less than $10,000 a year that they regularly paid $400 to have their taxes prepared to make sure they didn\u2019t make any errors. For years, we\u2019d talked about how amazing it would be to have a free tool that made it much <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/chicago\/reports\/removing-bureaucracy-to-help-americans-access-tax-credits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">simpler to file taxes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were excited when a group of funders came to us and asked us to revive our successful coalition to make sure more people in Chicago are able to access <a href=\"https:\/\/directfile.irs.gov\/?utm_source=National-Nonprofit&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Cfa147&amp;utm_id=directfile&amp;utm_content=QRcode\">Archivo directo<\/a> and receive their tax credits. With the rising price of living and more and more Chicagoans telling us how hard it is to make ends meet, it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. Direct File was thoughtfully designed, is so easy to use, and has over a 90 percent approval rating from users. While there is more work to do to make sure it is accessible to everyone, Direct File has the potential to make taxes so much easier for people who are just trying to make ends meet. They already have enough to worry about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our coalition looks a little different now. Sadly, one of our leading partners, Heartland Alliance,&nbsp; is no longer in operation. But, our core team is just as committed to making sure Chicago communities have one less bill to worry about and more money in their pockets.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2023, when we shut down our pandemic era coalition, we never thought we\u2019d open it up again just two years later. Stimulus checks were winding down and so had the philanthropic funding that had kept teams like ours going.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Reviving Our Coalition to Support Direct File in Chicago","_seopress_titles_desc":"We\u2019re back\u2014reviving our coalition to help Chicagoans access tax credits through Direct File, making taxes easier for low-income families and workers.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"General"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/worried-couple-at-table.jpg",1500,1000,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Meegan Dugan Adell","author_link":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/author\/e93d264b1b2ba20b\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"General","slug":"general","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":12,"category_description":"","cat_name":"General","category_nicename":"general","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getmypaymentillinois.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}