Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy data say the temporary increase in the child tax credit expired on December 15, raised childhood poverty to 17% in January, the highest percentage since December 2020.
Youngsters of color and Latinos will be hurt the worst, with one out of four children living in poverty.
Putting Families Back to Poverty
January has been the harshest month for millions of children, plunging them back into poverty and leaving their families unsure how they can keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. The American Rescue Plan, which was passed in March, gave parents a more excellent credit that was disbursed every month for the first time, rather than once a year as a tax refund, and was available to families that couldn’t afford to file income taxes.
The Build Back Better Act was supposed to prolong it for another year, but Senator Joe Manchin killed it at the end of last year, owing to his mistrust about the child tax credit, the TNR posted.
Families say it gave them a lifesaver when job stability and child care were in short supply.
A 39-year-old chronically ill mother of five from Bloomington, Indiana, Eliza Carey worked for UPS, an insurance company, and a clinic, but now she’s studying to be a special education teacher. The child tax credit lets her buy groceries, pay rent, pay off her vehicle loan, and occasionally spoil the kids. She claims that she would have had to move in with family and forego meals for her children to eat without the tax credit.
CTC Solved Food Shortage
According to NBC News, a 2019 study commissioned by Congress, expanding the child and dependent care tax credit, developing the earned income credit. Increasing SNAP benefits and expanding the housing voucher program might cut poverty in half and result in the hiring of nearly 400,000 low-income employees. (formerly known as food stamps), it would cost $90.7 billion every year. The annual cost of child poverty in the United States is estimated to be $1.1 trillion.
A study conducted in the United States concludes this is the case. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzed Census Bureau data and found that 91 percent of low-income families spent their monthly benefits on these necessities. Families used the helpless frequently to pay for auto payments (19 percent of families), child care (16 percent), or to pay off past obligations (17 percent ).
Food shortage occurs when a household does not have enough food to consume sometimes or frequently throughout the week. Insufficiency rates have fluctuated throughout the pandemic, peaking in late 2020. However, the six-monthly child tax credit payments beginning in 2021 reduced food insecurity among families by 26%, NPR wrote.
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