Child befit6/12/2023 Duncan, who lost her job as a nanny when the pandemic hit, said her family would not have had enough food otherwise. Lafleur Duncan, a parent in Brooklyn, has been using some of the federal money to feed her son, who just entered high school. Low-income households without children showed no similar decline, suggesting that the change was directly due to the new tax credit.Īnother analysis estimated that the payments prevented 2 million children from going without enough food. After July, that proportion sharply dropped to 21%. (Data on how the money is being used is based on parents’ responses to surveys, not actual spending data.)īefore, about 30% of low-income parents said their household sometimes or often didn’t have enough food to eat. Many also said that the extra money helped pay for regular expenses. A Census survey showed most low-income parents said they spent at least some of it on food, more than any other item. The money seemed to pay almost immediate dividends to low-income families. The other half of the credit will be distributed in a lump sum at tax time.) (The monthly checks will continue through December. The new monthly payments began going out in July: $300 per month for each child under 6 and $250 per month for older children. The child tax credit has substantially reduced poverty and hardship among children and families. Here’s what we’ve learned about how the expanded program has affected families and children so far. If no deal is reached, the size of the benefit would fall and the country’s poorest households would be partially or fully excluded from it. Critics, including many Republicans, have argued that it discourages work and amounts to federal overreach. Now, Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration are wrangling over whether and how to extend the program as part of a major social spending package. “There’s some strong evidence from the past that these types of income boosts will be beneficial for students at increasing their learning potential.”īut the move was only temporary. There is “consistent and broad evidence that this policy is working as intended,” said Zach Parolin, who has studied the program at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy. Indeed, many low-income families say they have used the funds on their children’s education. There’s not hard evidence yet, but previous research suggests that the monthly payments also could boost student learning. How well has it worked? Initial data suggests the expanded program has cut child poverty and child hunger substantially - although the impact would be greater if all eligible families were receiving the payments. The IRS has been distributing that money monthly since July. Earlier this year, Congress decided to try a remarkably straightforward approach to reduce child poverty: give their families more money.Īs part of the Biden-backed American Rescue Plan, Congress expanded the child tax credit, which provides cash benefits to most households with children, including some of the country’s poorest families.
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