California has reported approximately 3.5 million unemployment claims since March 19, when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order for the state. Residents of Fullerton and all throughout Orange County are suffering from job losses as a result of coronavirus. It’s the end of the month, and another set of bills will be due. Here are the breaks that governments and businesses are granting for people who can’t afford to pay.

Rent

Fullerton City Council has passed an eviction moratorium ordinance that gives residential and commercial tenants a 180-day deferral period on rent. That means tenants don’t have to pay rent for this period of time without fear of being evicted. The eviction moratorium will be effective until the expiration of Gov. Newsom’s Executive Order for the enforcement of eviction orders for renters which ends on May 31, 2020. After the order has expired renters will be given a 180-day period to pay back rent owed, unless extended in writing between landlord and tenant. 

Utilities

Southern California Edison is temporarily suspending service disconnections and waiving late fees to customers. SCE also offers a program that will reduce electric bills for qualified households by 18%. Customers may also qualify for California Alternate Rates for energy that will reduce energy bills by about 30%. 

SoCal Gas has suspended service disconnections, and if your household income recently changed then you could possibly qualify for 20% off your natural gas bill.

The city operates on cost recovery to provide water, sewer, and sanitation services because of this Fullerton will waive late payments, penalty fees and set up a payment arrangement for water services, on a case by case basis.

Additionally,  the Water Shutoff Protection Act gives residential customers 60 days to pay delinquent bills before their water can be shut off. This is a California law that was signed in 2018 and went into effect in February 2020. 

Charter is offering free Spectrum broadband and wi-fi access for sixty days to households with K-12 or college students. To qualify you must have not subscribed to internet services within the past thirty days and have a student qualifying age at your service address with educational needs.

Phone

By submitting a form and explaining your current situation, Verizon will not charge any late fees or terminate your service, this will be in effective through May 13, 2020. Activation and upgrade fees are being waived, depending which fee it is and where you purchase the device. 

AT&T is allowing members to waive their late payments. Such as postpaid wireless a monthly bill a person receives for choosing one of AT&T’s unlimited plans, home phone, U-verse TV or DIRECTV. For residential customers who have domestic postpaid wireless plans AT&T will waive charges for data, voice or text. The charges or fees will be applicable until May 13, 2020. 

Sprint is issuing unlimited data for 60 days to customers with metered data plans and giving free 20 GB mobile hotspots. Also, they’re waiving per-minute charges for international long-distance calls from the U.S. 

Student Loans

Federal Student Aid has set up student loans to allow those who are making monthly payments to be on temporary hold until Sept. 30, 2020. The interest is set at 0% on some loans for this extension period. FFEL Program Loans and Perkins Loans are not eligible for 0% interest period. 

Income Taxes

Federal and state of California income tax filing and payment deadlines have been extended to July 15, 2020.  If you have scheduled tax payments, you must cancel them at least two business days before the scheduled payment; it does not automatically reschedule to July 15. This also applies to businesses with a California return or payment due between March 12 and July 15.