Kathleen Anderson, 75, doesn't have to file taxes because her income comes from monthly Social Security checks. But this year, Anderson had to file in order to be eligible for a $300 payment from the state.
Anderson, who lives in an affordable senior housing community in Fairfield, said she's lucky to have a case manager for her disability who informed her of the opportunity and taught her how to file her taxes, which is not the case for many of her neighbors.
"There are lots of people who don't have computers in my building," Anderson said. "And, there are people who certainly can't deal with the [tax] form. It's too complicated."
Despite being eligible for the "affordability checks," which were a cornerstone of the latest state budget, Mainers who are solely reliant on Social Security or disability will not receive them unless they file taxes, which they otherwise aren't required to do.
The checks are automatically mailed to Maine residents of certain incomes who file a 2025 Maine individual income tax return. Approximately 514,000 Mainers are eligible, and the state has processed just over 237,000 checks as of last week, according to Sharon Huntley, director of communications for the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services.
It's likely that about two-thirds of Social Security recipients in Maine are eligible, but given the lack of data on people who don't file taxes, it's a difficult figure to pinpoint.
Several of the Mainers who have received or are waiting to receive checks told Maine Morning Star that the $300 will make at least some difference in their ability to pay for essentials such as utility bills. But many also pointed to the ways the one-time payments fall short of addressing persistent affordability issues.
"It's been kind of a very sad game of 'which need and whose need' should I try to address with this $300, and I haven't come up with a good answer," said Hazel Willow, a mother who now relies on government assistance after an abusive relationship left her in financial strain.
The state is starting to mail $300 checks to some Mainers. Are you eligible?
Anderson has been helping people in her building file their taxes, in some cases loaning out her computer to do so, especially since free help is otherwise sparse given that the American Association of Retired Persons' preparation services close at the end of tax season. Anderson has also heard from several people who are skeptical that the checks are real.
When her neighbor, Suzanne Varney, 63, first heard about the initiative, she thought it was a scam.
"I'm not going to hold my breath until I actually see a check in my mailbox," Varney said.
But the check landed in her mailbox about a week ago, after Anderson helped her file her taxes, which she does not usually have to do because she relies on disability.
"If it wasn't for her, I would lose out because I don't know how to do my taxes," Varney said of Anderson. "I get stressed out and then I get overwhelmed and then I want to shut down."
Given these barriers, Varney said it would be useful for case managers, home workers or other trusted support workers who help people with low incomes to inform their clients about the checks.
Full-year Maine residents who file their 2025 state return by October 15 are eligible if they have a federal adjusted gross income of less than $100,000 if filing a joint return, $75,000 if filing as a head of household, or $50,000 if single or married filing separately. People who are able to be claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer's 2025 individual income tax return are not eligible.
Anderson questions why eligibility was tied to tax returns and not based on reliance on certain government services. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Maine gave bonus payments to workers collecting unemployment insurance.
But there are limits to such an approach, in part because state law restricts access to health and human services data. There are also many low income people who don't apply for assistance programs even though they are eligible, said James Myall, policy analyst for the progressive Maine Center for Economic Policy.
Huntley said the $300 affordability payments were created to return a portion of Maine sales and excise tax payments to individuals considered to be disproportionately affected by such taxes.
Gov. Janet Mills proposed the checks in her final budget before terming out at the end of this year, which the Democratic majority in the Legislature agreed to include but at a lesser amount, ultimately settling on a $155.2 million price tag. Republicans criticized the move but so did some Democrats, particularly given the checks' limited and short-term impact.
As the checks have begun to get mailed out, Myall has also heard some complaints about people just missing the threshold of eligibility, which lawmakers had lowered to reduce the cost, though he noted that the $300 is likely to go farther with people who have the least.
"For me personally, that's a lot of money," Varney said.
Varney plans to put most of it toward bills, including car expenses she had to put on a credit card and has been trying to pay off.
For Anderson, who said she gets roughly $1,240 a month from Social Security and currently has $8 in her checking account, $300 will help pay her bills and fill her car with gas. Anderson said she also plans to put some of it toward essentials like toilet paper and dish soap, which are not covered by food stamps.
Willow similarly plans to focus on paying down debts, such as her power bill. "I've already had my power shut off twice in the past year and it is so psychologically destabilizing and physiologically destabilizing," she said.
But she's balancing the need to do that against paying for medications for post-traumatic stress disorder and other health issues that are not covered by insurance, or getting back-to-school clothes for her child.
Five years out of an abusive relationship and into living in poverty, Willow said, "I'm doing everything I can to get off of these supports because it feels awful, and I just, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."
While the $300 will make a difference, she said she wants to see more state investment in programs that offer recurring payments or services such as childcare that would have a long-term impact on quality of life and mental health.
"I know how to stretch $1," Willow said, "but it just feels a little bit like it'll kind of evaporate by the time it gets here. It's not that I'm not grateful, but it's kind of like a Band-Aid on a bullet hole."
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