SBA: COVID-19 EIDL borrowers have additional time to seek more loans funds

Small businesses and nonprofits that received COVID-19 federal disaster loans aren’t facing a Dec. 31 deadline to increase their loan amount, officials said, responding to confusion among those seeking aid.

Recipients of a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan have two years from when their loan was made or until loan funds are gone to raise their loan amount, said Veronica Pugin, senior adviser in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Capital Access. SBA runs the EIDL program.

Borrowers are able to request more help because the Biden Administration returned the maximum loan amount to $2 million per applicant. That congressionally-mandated cap was lowered last year by the Trump administration to $150,000 per applicant because of concerns that the COVID EIDL program would run out of money.

"You can still submit applications for loan increases," Pugin said in an SBA webinar for businesses. "If you already got a COVID EIDL, you can submit a request for an increase up to the amount you are eligible for … The timeline is two years from the point of loan origination or until funds are exhausted," she said on Wednesday.

The longer time frame also applies to appeals from borrowers whose COVID EIDL applications were turned down by SBA.

Nearly 3.9 million COVID EIDL loans, totaling $308.5 billion, have been made since the coronavirus struck in early 2020. In New York State, there are 328,956 loans, totaling about $30 billion, the third-most in the country after California and Florida, according to agency data.

SBA has set a Dec. 31 deadline to receive first-time applications for COVID EIDL loans and Targeted EIDL Advance and Supplemental Targeted Advance grants. The grants are for businesses and nonprofits that were hit hard by the pandemic and are in poor neighborhoods.

More information may be found at sba.gov/eidl.