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The Biden administration again extended a federal moratorium on evictions last week, but conflicting court rulings on whether the ban is legal, plus the difficulty of rolling out nearly $50 billion in federal aid, mean the country’s reckoning with its eviction crisis may come sooner than expected, the Washington Post reported. The year-old federal moratorium — which has now been extended through June 30 — has probably kept hundreds of thousands or millions of people from being evicted from their apartments and homes. More than 10 million Americans are behind on rent, according to Moody’s, easily topping the 7 million who lost their homes to foreclosure in the 2008 housing bust. Despite the unprecedented federal effort to protect tenants, landlords have been chipping away at the moratorium in court. Six lawsuits have made their way before federal judges — with three ruling in support of the ban and three calling it illegal. The opposition started when landlords in Texas sued in the fall, arguing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had overstepped its bounds in implementing the ban. Apartment owners argued in their complaint that they built and maintained apartment buildings “with the reasonable expectation that they would be legally permitted to realize the benefit of their bargain by collecting monthly rent from their tenants.” District Judge J. Campbell Barker agreed. “Although the COVID-19 pandemic persists, so does the Constitution,” he wrote. The National Association of Home Builders joined Ohio landlords in another suit. The judge in that case, J. Philip Calabrese, also ruled against the ban, writing March 10 that “the CDC’s orders exceeded the statutory authority Congress gave the agency.” Treasury Department officials have been armed with nearly $50 billion in emergency aid for renters who have fallen behind and are racing to distribute it through hundreds of state, local and tribal housing agencies, some of which have not created programs yet. The idea is to get the money to renters before courts nationwide begin processing evictions again. “We are running the Emergency Rental Assistance Program every day like we’re going to lose the moratorium tomorrow,” said a Treasury Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the program before any formal announcements. The moratorium was not overly controversial at first, and it has received bipartisan support from lawmakers. It was formed when President Donald Trump and Congress directed the CDC to create a form tenants can use to declare that they cannot pay rent because of the pandemic and that they have been unable to secure other housing. Filing the form generally halts eviction proceedings.

Billions of dollars in stimulus payments are being sent to Americans, and that makes them a target for fraudsters, the Washington Post reported. Coronavirus-related cons have given crooks another way into people’s bank accounts, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, whom President Biden named acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission, said in an interview with the Washington Post “People are desperate,” Slaughter said. “They are struggling financially. They’re worried about their health. They’re dealing with child-care issues. And that’s why it’s great that the money is coming, but bad guys are seeing that desperation, too, and are taking advantage of it as they do. We’re just looking out for people who are trying to take advantage of that stimulus money and other related programs.” The FTC received nearly 2.2 million consumer fraud reports last year, up almost 27 percent from the year before, including a surge of online shopping complaints in the early days of the pandemic. Consumers reported losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud, up from $1.8 billion a year earlier. Last year, the FTC introduced ReportFraud.ftc.gov, an updated platform for consumers to file fraud complaints. The FTC is seeing scams involving personal protective equipment (PPE). The agency has also pursued schemes involving the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provides money to businesses to help them make payroll during the pandemic. Tucked in the third round of stimulus aid, largely unnoticed, was $30.4 million allocated to the FTC to fight not just the old consumer scams but also new schemes with a pandemic twist. Under the American Rescue Plan, signed by Biden on March 11, $24 million went to fund full-time employees at the FTC to address unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including those related to the coronavirus. An additional $4.4 million would go to process and monitor consumer complaints received by the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, including increased complaints about schemes related to the pandemic, and $2 million for consumer-related education to help consumers avoid coronavirus scams.

The Biden administration said on Wednesday that 25 million more stimulus payments worth a total of $36 billion had been sent out to Americans from the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief legislation, Reuters reported. The announcement of a fourth batch of checks was made by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service. It brings to 156 million payments the amount disbursed, with a total value of $372 billion. The latest payments of up to $1,400 began processing last Friday, with some people receiving direct deposits, Treasury said in a statement. The pandemic-hammered U.S. economy has been on the rebound, with 916,000 jobs created last month, bringing the jobless rate down to 6%.

A wave of foreclosures and evictions threatens to arrive when pandemic-related pauses expire later this year, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering restrictions on mortgage servicers that would spread the hit into 2022, the New York Times reported. More than 3 million households are behind on their mortgage payments, and nearly 1.7 million will run out their forbearance periods in September, according to the bureau. “We are at really an unusual point in history,” said Diane Thompson, a senior adviser at the bureau. “I don’t think anybody has ever before seen this many mortgages in forbearance at one time that are expected to exit at one time.” So the bureau has come up with a proposal to ensure that homeowners don’t go straight from forbearance to foreclosure. The agency proposed a new rule that would prevent servicers from starting foreclosure proceedings until after Dec. 31. The intent, bureau officials said, is to give borrowers coming off forbearance time to consider their options, such as whether they need a mortgage modification to reduce their monthly payments. The restriction would apply only to mortgages on homes used as primary residences. The agency also proposed a rule change that would allow servicers to extend loan modification offers to borrowers experiencing a COVID-related hardship without undertaking the full review normally required to adjust a mortgage. The intention is to let lenders quickly offer borrowers more affordable terms, so long as the change does not increase the borrower’s monthly payment or extend the loan’s term by more than 40 years.

Interviews with dozens of researchers and Americans still waiting for aid reveal ongoing problems with disbursing the $1,400 stimulus payments, processing 2020 tax refunds, administering unemployment insurance checks, and dispensing housing aid to people behind on rent and utilities, the Washington Post reported. As the Biden administration vows to deliver a more equal economic recovery, one of its biggest challenges is getting money into the hands of people who are still jobless or underemployed, so they don’t fall further behind. Experts say the administrative stumbles underscore the need for massive upgrades in technology, more staffing and clear program guidelines so the nation isn’t caught flat-footed for the next crisis. Biden stressed Friday that his American Rescue Plan is making a difference and that by the middle of this week, 130 million households will have received their stimulus payments, with more funds on the way to schools, small businesses and local communities. One of the areas with clear glitches is the disbursement of the latest round of stimulus payments. About 30 million Americans who should have automatically received the $1,400 payments are still waiting, more than three weeks after Biden signed the $1.9 trillion relief package. These people do not normally file tax returns because their income is so low, they don’t usually need to. But the federal government has their information to send them their stimulus payments, because they currently receive Social Security retirement, survivor or disability payments; or Supplemental Security Income, Railroad Retirement Board or Veterans Affairs benefits. The Internal Revenue Service said it was delayed in sending out these payments because it was waiting for information from the Social Security Administration and other government agencies. However, the December stimulus payments did not have the same holdup. The IRS said that it was doing everything it could to expedite the process and that the payments for the remaining Social Security beneficiaries should arrive in bank accounts by Wednesday. The agency had to recheck who was eligible for payments in the new tax year, an extra hurdle that didn’t exist in December, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

A greater share of people with low credit scores has been falling behind on their car payments in recent months, a sign of stress among consumers whose finances have been hit hard by the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some 10.9% of subprime borrowers with outstanding auto loans or leases were more than 60 days past due in February, up from 10.7% in January and 8.7% a year prior, according to credit-reporting firm TransUnion. It marked the sixth consecutive month-over-month increase and the highest level in monthly data going back to January 2019. More than 9% of subprime auto borrowers were more than 60 days past due in the fourth quarter, the highest quarterly figure in data going back to 2005. The missed payments are increasing in what has otherwise been a period of relatively low consumer delinquencies, with stimulus payments, unemployment benefits and other measures keeping many borrowers afloat. The rising subprime delinquencies point to an uneven economic recovery and a deep divergence between those who can navigate the coronavirus downturn and those who can’t.

The Biden administration is suspending collections on defaulted student loans held by more than one million borrowers, the latest in a flurry of moves to offer relief to adults struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move extends relief to 1.14 million students who borrowed under an older loan program known as the Federal Family Education Loan Program, and then defaulted on those loans. This group hadn’t been covered by prior coronavirus-related adjustments to collections and payment requirements. FFEL loans are guaranteed by the federal government but held by private lenders. Some defaulted loans were purchased by the Education Department during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, but others are still held by private entities. FFEL borrowers whose loans are owned by private lenders and who are not in default aren’t affected by Tuesday’s announcement. A senior agency official said there are a couple million borrowers in that category, and the Education Department is “still looking at what our options are there” for extending debt relief to them. The Education Department yesterday also set interest rates on privately held defaulted FFEL loans at 0%, effectively suspending interest payments. The collections pause and adjusted interest rate are both retroactive to March 13, 2020, when the nation first declared a national emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. Any loans that went into default since that time will also be restored to good standing, which could help repair borrowers’ credit scores.

Some of the most vulnerable Americans still haven’t gotten their stimulus checks, but millions of them who receive federal benefits should get their payments next week, according to the Internal Revenue Service, the New York Times reported. People who receive benefits from Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, the Railroad Retirement Board and Veterans Affairs — but do not file tax returns because they don’t meet the income thresholds — were among those who faced delays. But most of them — with the exception of those receiving benefits from Veterans Affairs — could have their payments arrive by direct deposit on April 7, as long as there are no further problems. Veterans Affairs beneficiaries will have to wait a bit longer; the I.R.S. estimates their checks could be issued by mid-April and expects to provide more specifics soon. The payments have been delayed because the I.R.S. didn’t have the proper files to process them until last week. The agency said yesterday that it had begun a “multi-step process” to check the beneficiaries’ eligibility and calculate their payments. Individuals can check the status of their payment on the Get My Payment tool on the I.R.S. website — it’s updated for eligible individuals once their payment has been processed. But the agency said that the tool would not be updated until the weekend of April 3-4 with information for federal beneficiaries expecting payments next week. But many federal beneficiaries who filed tax returns in 2019 or 2020 — or who used the I.R.S.’s non-filers tool last year — have already received their payments over the past three weeks.