The CARES ACT - the $2 trillion dollar stimulus package from the federal government to help Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic - has protections written in to safeguard the money being distributed. However, as this Forbes article points out, the protections against debt collection are at the federal level only. States have been left to make their own rules.

On Saturday (4/18/2020), New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a “hands off” debt collection policy against any debt collector, to make sure money stays in the hands of New Yorkers, as first reported by Gothamist. She specified that this protection does not apply to “any actions to collect past-due child support.”

In her press release, Attorney General Letitia James said: “As the coronavirus crisis continues to wreak havoc on our society, I will do everything in my power to protect the wallets of every New Yorker. Today, we are taking concrete action to ensure debt collectors keep their hands off New Yorkers’ stimulus payments. This official guidance makes clear that banks and debt collectors cannot freeze or seize stimulus funds that are on their way to New York families, and any institution that violates this guidance will face swift legal action from my office.”

A seemingly crowd-sourced or edited list of what other states are doing regarding the stimulus checks can be found here, as reported by Gothamist.