Back in March 2020, we were still trying to figure out what COVID-19 was, stay-at-home-order.html">when residents from a majority of states were under mandatory stay at home orders, and job losses soared when employers slashed roughly 870,000 jobs in March. In April, that number grew to 20.5 million when Congress ​​passed the CARES Act relief bill which included the Paycheck Protection Program that gave out loans to small business owners to help them stay afloat. 

To date, banks around the country have distributed nearly $800 billion dollars through nearly 12 million PPP loans. And these loans did help many small business owners. But while the program did a lot of good, there are those who struggled to understand the forms, who were denied loans, and now, some are struggling to have their loans forgiven.

Bryce Covert, an independent journalist writing about the economy, reported on this issue for The Intercept and learned that some borrowers are having problems with Bank of America, the second-biggest PPP lender.

We also hear from small business owners: Amy Yassinger, owner of Yass Jazz, Music and Productions, in Chicago, Illinois, and Christopher Martin, owner of CT Martin Inc that does Concierge IT services out of Michigan. 

The Takeaway reached out to the Small Business Administration about this story for comment and they declined to comment. We also reached out to Bank of America and here's what Bill Halldin, Bank of America Media Relations, said: 

We work with clients every day to ensure they receive forgiveness for as much of their Paycheck Protection Program loan as possible. To date, 94 percent of clients in the 2020 round have submitted forgiveness applications that have been fully completed by the SBA; in the 2021 round that percentage stands at 87 percent.

In the forgiveness process, we are required to follow the Small Business Administration’s rules and guidance. That guidance has been clear that payments made to contractors do not qualify for forgiveness under the SBA’s rules. If a client has additional documentation to support their application for forgiveness, we encourage them to submit that information and have made adjustments based on such submissions. Clients who want to appeal to the SBA can take their concerns to the SBA directly and do not require our involvement in that process.