About CARES Act Benefits

Many veteran and military families are suffering financially right now due to losses of income caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this background paper is to describe financial benefits available to those families included in the federal CARES Act. The objective is to convince families that, because funds to fill their financial gaps have strings and costs attached, they should not dig a financial hole they can’t climb out of at the end of this crisis.

By far, the “cheapest” source of funds is the free money federal and state governments are providing under the Federal CARES Act. These funds are intended to provide both direct and indirect relief to Americans who need to close the gap between income and expenses. For many, COVID-19 made that gap wider.

For the purposes of this discussion, we group CARES Act benefits into four individual “buckets:” direct income relief, indirect income relief, direct expense relief, and indirect expense relief.

Direct Income Relief

In the direct income relief bucket, a couple of CARES Act programs are intended to directly replace income Americans lost as a result of being furloughed or losing their jobs.

Indirect Income Relief

In addition to money to be provided by the CARES Act directly to Americans, the Act includes programs that indirectly provide financial relief to Americans.

Direct Expense Relief

Americans can also close the gap between income and expenses by reducing their expenses. There are CARES Act programs designed to do that directly.

Indirect Expense Relief

These CARES Act programs are available to help veterans and military families deal with this unprecedented crisis. For more information, please consult your base Personal Financial Managers or the banks or credit unions on your installations. AMBA is proud that our member banks serving on military installations remain open and available to all our military families.

Find a Participating Bank or Credit Union

Learn More