John,

This morning, the Census Bureau released national poverty, income, and health insurance data for 2023. It’s always important to understand income and health insurance trends, but it’s especially important now since Congress can take practical steps of proven benefit to reduce poverty and protect affordable health coverage.

The new data shows that in 2023, tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit (CTC) lifted 6.4 million people above the federal poverty line―and the CTC, 2.4 million people alone.¹ And we know for sure that when the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was expanded in 2021, child poverty decreased by 46% overall by lifting 5.3 million people above the poverty line, with Black and Hispanic/Latino child poverty falling by 6.3 percentage points in each community, impacting 716,000 Black children and 1.2 million Hispanic children.²

Then the expanded CTC was allowed to expire and child poverty skyrocketed back up. As Congress discusses major tax legislation for 2025, they must look at the latest data about poverty, hardship, and other measures for our country as a whole.

In 2023, nearly 10 million children were in poverty (9.962m), painfully higher than the 3.8 million poor children in 2021, when a powerful Child Tax Credit was helping families. There were a million more poor children in 2023 than in 2022. It is well past time for Congress to do what we know works to improve millions of children’s lives: expand the Child Tax Credit.

Write a letter to Congress urging them to pass the expanded Child Tax Credit and lift millions of children out of poverty once and for all.

The current CTC provides higher benefits to families earning $400,000 per year than to families earning $15,000. In fact, 18 million children in the U.S.―26%―are ineligible to receive the full Child Tax Credit because their families’ incomes are too low.³ Historic racism and lack of opportunity result in nearly half of Black children, along with 4 in 10 Native American/Alaska Native and more than 1 in 3 Latino children, getting less than the full credit or no CTC at all.⁴

We know that tax policies can make a difference from today’s data, and that we could be doing so much more. In the wealthiest country in the world, no child should live in poverty because their parents don’t make enough money to receive a tax credit that was created to provide financial support to low-income families.

Send a direct message to Congress demanding they pass the expanded Child Tax Credit and address child poverty now.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹ Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Statistics
² Child Poverty Fell to Record Low 5.2% in 2021
³ Children Left Behind by the Child Tax Credit in 2022
⁴ Year-End Tax Policy Priority: Expand the Child Tax Credit for the 19 Million Children Who Receive Less Than the Full Credit