INCOME & WORK SUPPORTS UPDATE
July 2020

This Pride Month, Let’s Invest in the LGBTQIA Community

Over the past couple of decades, the LGBTQIA community has obtained many victories, like achieving marriage equality and key Supreme Court decisions on workplace anti-discrimination protections. But there is still work to do, particularly around financial security and economic justice. A new pilot program in San Francisco providing a guaranteed income to transgender residents who have low incomes could serve as an example for federal action.

10 Things to Know about the Expanded Child Tax Credit

The temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) is anticipated to reduce child poverty by nearly half—and to have even greater benefits for Black children, Latinx children, and Indigenous children who were disproportionately likely to be denied the full value of the federal credit under prior law because their parents earned too little. Despite the wide-reaching benefits this program will have for children and families, parents are still uncertain about how the program will work.

Asking the Right Data Questions: Uncovering Administrative Barriers to Medicaid

Working with states to obtain and analyze administrative data is a central component of effective administrative advocacy aimed at ensuring that all eligible people have continued access to coverage. This Evaluating the Medicaid Enrollment Experience (EMEE) report contains examples of data requests advocates could make of state agencies to learn more about the application, enrollment, and renewal processes and better target their advocacy.

In the News

JUNE 27, 2021 | TRUTHOUT

Child Care Should be Universal and Well-Paid - Not Just Affordable

JUNE 15, 2021 | TEEN VOGUE

Toxic Work Environments Shouldn’t Be a Rite of Passage

JUNE 17, 2021 | ROLL CALL

Juneteenth to become federal holiday as House sends bill to Biden

IWS Updates

We hope you all had a Pride Month filled with laughter, love, and celebration! Both Pride Month and Juneteenth should serve as reminders that the LGBTQIA and Black community deserve economic justice.

One of President Biden’s first Executive Orders, signed the day he was inaugurated, committed the Federal government to a comprehensive approach to promoting racial equity. Following this direction, the Office of Management and Budget solicited public input on how federal agencies can improve stakeholder and community engagement in anti-poverty programs. CLASP submitted comments on these questions drawing on research from across the organization. USDA is also seeking public input on racial equity in its programs, including SNAP, until July 15. At an upcoming congressional briefing on July 13, our Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) partners at the Urban Institute will show just how necessary it is for agencies to embrace racial equity to build partnerships and trust between administrators and underserved, especially immigrant, communities. If you submitted or plan to comment for either of these RFIs, we’d love to read them.

Also over the past month, the IRS has posted two online portals to help families claim the advanced monthly Child Tax Credit (CTC), including a non-filer portal targeting parents who don’t traditionally file taxes. The first round of monthly CTC payments will be sent to families beginning on July 15th. CLASP is excited to continue raising awareness of the CTC payments, to publish materials about how the payments will work, and to ensure the payments reach all eligible families. We are interested in hearing your ideas about how best to ensure the payments are made permanent and distributed equitably.