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John,
In 2021, during the pandemic, Congress passed an expanded Child Tax Credit as part of the American Rescue Plan. It was successful in cutting child poverty almost in half.
Then, in 2022, Congress let the credit expire. The result? It’s hardly surprising that child poverty shot back up again, nearly doubling, to pre-pandemic levels.
Fortunately, Congress is responding to the demands of those who could not tolerate subjecting children’s lives to such privation, and now a new bill to increase the credit again has strong bipartisan support. It will expand the Child Tax Credit to 80% of low-income families who do not now receive it. This new expansion is, however, still less generous than the 2021 policy.
Families with incomes under $2,500 will remain completely ineligible, and only families with incomes over $14,500 will receive the full refundable credit. If this seems like blaming the victims, it is. Rep. Richard Neal called the Republicans out for “refusing to expand the child tax credit to include our country’s poorest children.”
Despite these shortcomings, the expanded Child Tax Credit is still a significant improvement over the current policy. Tell congress to pass it now!
The new expansion is estimated to benefit 16 million children, lifting 400,000 children out of poverty. This would be far better than the current situation, where over 25% of families with children under age 6 experience food insecurity.
With the expanded credit, the refundable cap will be increased from 15% of the family’s income, to 15% times the number of children in the family, known as the “per-child calculation.”
In addition, the refundable maximum will increase to $1,800 per child in 2023 (retroactively), $1,900 in 2024, and $2,000 in 2025. The result could be thousands of dollars back for some families.
Sign the petition to Congress: Pass the bipartisan proposal to expand the Child Tax Credit now.
Thank you for helping to alleviate child poverty in America.
- Amanda
Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund
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