system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Did I find an unintended consequence of the Covid stimulus checks?

Stimulus checks were sent out in multiple rounds during the crisis. At least one of them (I think the first one) meant different things to different types of college students.

Stimulus checks were available to college students who filed as independent, but not to college students who filed as dependent. As such, none of my college friends from the lower end of the economic spectrum received stimulus checks because their parents were reliant on child and education tax credits. However, these credits are only made available to parents below an income cap. Consequently, I had college friends whose parents made above this income cap tell their children to report themselves independent. They received no benefit from claiming dependents, so the best choice was for the children to file independent to receive stimulus checks.

As a result, stimulus checks were more available to higher privileged students and less available to lower privileged students.

Is there something I am missing with this? My evidence is anecdotal.
gpt
Your friends and their parents may have committed tax fraud. You don't get to choose to file your adult children as dependents, they either are or are not depending how much support you give them. 

Choosing to file independently when they are in fact not, is tax fraud.