The American Rescue Plan Act, known as ARPA, is the $1.9 trillion federal pandemic relief law signed on March 11, 2021. It sent a third round of stimulus checks, temporarily enlarged the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, extended unemployment benefits, subsidized health insurance, and moved $350 billion to state and local governments. Most of the household-facing pieces have expired, but a few government-side programs run into 2026, and the recent expiration of ARPA’s marketplace insurance subsidies is now showing up in premium bills.
What Households Got Directly
The most visible piece was the third Economic Impact Payment: up to $1,400 per eligible individual, $2,800 for married couples filing jointly, and $1,400 per dependent.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6428B – 2021 Recovery Rebates to Individuals Payments phased down above $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers, and disappeared entirely at $80,000 and $160,000 for filers with no dependents.2U.S. Department of the Treasury. Economic Impact Payments
For the 2021 tax year only, ARPA raised the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 per child to $3,600 for children under six and $3,000 for children ages six through seventeen.3Internal Revenue Service. 2021 Child Tax Credit Basics Half of the credit went out as monthly advance payments from July through December 2021, and the rest was claimed on the 2021 return. The Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without qualifying children also jumped that year, from a maximum of $543 to $1,502, with the minimum age lowered to 19 for non-students and the upper age cap removed. Both changes have reverted.
Unemployment Benefits and the 2020 Tax Break
ARPA extended three pandemic unemployment programs through early September 2021: a $300 weekly federal supplement, coverage for self-employed and gig workers who don’t normally qualify for state benefits, and extra weeks for people who had exhausted their state allotment.4U.S. Department of Labor. U.S. Department of Labor Issues Guidance on Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation and Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation All three ended on schedule.
The law also let households with modified adjusted gross income below $150,000 exclude up to $10,200 of 2020 unemployment benefits from taxable income. On a joint return, each spouse could exclude up to $10,200.5Internal Revenue Service. 2020 Unemployment Compensation Exclusion FAQs This applied only to benefits received in 2020.
Health Insurance Changes
Workers who lost a job or had hours cut involuntarily got a temporary 100 percent COBRA subsidy from April 1 through September 30, 2021, letting them keep employer coverage at no premium cost during that window.6Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2021-31 – Premium Assistance for COBRA Benefits Employers and plan administrators recovered the cost through a payroll tax credit.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6432 – Continuation Coverage Premium Assistance
ARPA also expanded Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies. It removed the income cap that had cut off premium tax credits above 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and it capped premium contributions at 8.5 percent of household income at the top of the scale.8Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. American Rescue Plan and the Marketplace The Inflation Reduction Act extended those enhanced subsidies through 2025, but they expired on January 1, 2026, and premium tax credits reverted to their pre-ARPA levels. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the expiration would leave about 2.2 million additional people uninsured in 2026.9Congressional Research Service. Enhanced Premium Tax Credit and 2026 Exchange Premiums If you buy coverage on the marketplace, this is the ARPA-related change most likely to hit your budget right now.
For states that had not yet adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, ARPA offered a five-percentage-point bump to the state’s regular federal Medicaid matching rate for eight consecutive quarters after adoption, applied to the entire traditional Medicaid population.10Congressional Research Service. Medicaid’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)
Housing and Small Business Relief
ARPA put over $21.5 billion into the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which paid unpaid rent and utility bills for eligible households through state and local agencies.11U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fact Sheet: Housing Provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 Combined with earlier pandemic laws, the program moved more than $46 billion.12U.S. Department of the Treasury. Emergency Rental Assistance Program ERA is no longer taking applications and all funding periods have ended.13U.S. Department of the Treasury. Allocations and Payments
A separate $9.96 billion Homeowner Assistance Fund helped homeowners cover mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and utilities to prevent foreclosure. Through mid-2024, HAF-funded programs had assisted more than 549,000 homeowners.14U.S. Department of the Treasury. Homeowner Assistance Fund
On the business side, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund distributed roughly $28.6 billion in grants to about 100,000 food and beverage businesses, with many more applicants left on a waitlist when the money ran out.15Congressional Research Service. SBA Restaurant Revitalization Fund Grants ARPA added $1.25 billion to the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program for music venues, theaters, and museums,16U.S. Small Business Administration. Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and put nearly $10 billion into the State Small Business Credit Initiative for states to run their own lending and investment programs.17U.S. Department of the Treasury. State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) The federal grant programs are closed; SSBCI lending through states continues.
What Is Still Active in 2026
Almost every household benefit under ARPA has ended. The stimulus checks, the expanded Child Tax Credit and EITC, the unemployment supplements, the COBRA subsidy, and the enhanced ACA premium tax credits are all gone. What continues is mostly on the government side.
State, local, tribal, and territorial governments received $350 billion in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. They had until December 31, 2024, to obligate the money and must fully spend it by December 31, 2026.18U.S. Department of the Treasury. State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Many broadband buildouts, water and sewer upgrades, and affordable housing projects funded by these dollars are still under construction. The Homeowner Assistance Fund and State Small Business Credit Initiative also continue distributing balances in some jurisdictions.14U.S. Department of the Treasury. Homeowner Assistance Fund
FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance program, funded through ARPA, had approved more than 506,000 applications and paid out approximately $3.26 billion as of early 2026. The application window for new claims is closed.19FEMA. COVID-19 Funeral Assistance
If you’re still trying to claim something from ARPA as an individual, the practical answer in 2026 is that the direct-payment window has closed. The exceptions worth checking with your state are homeowner assistance, if you’re facing mortgage hardship, and any state-run small business lending program funded through SSBCI. For everyone else, ARPA’s legacy now runs through the infrastructure it paid for and through the higher marketplace premiums that followed its subsidy expiration.