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Congress must tackle child poverty head on and expand the Child Tax Credit

The Census Bureau just released national poverty, income, and insurance data for 2023. It’s important to understand income and health insurance trends, but it’s especially important now since Congress will take up major tax legislation in 2025.

One thing we know for sure is that when the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was expanded in 2021, child poverty decreased by 46% overall, 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. The new data shows that in 2023, the CTC lifted 2.4 million people above the federal poverty line―while important, falling far short of the 5.4 million lifted above the federal poverty line in 2021 by expanded monthly Child Tax Credit payments that included all children in low-income families.

Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.

Many people are facing food and housing insecurity, challenges with high child care costs, and dealing with other hardships that make it harder to make ends meet. Expanding the Child Tax Credit fixes a major flaw in current law: over 18 million children and their families are excluded from the full credit because their parents’ income is too low.

You read that right. Families where a parent can’t work due to illness or being laid off, cannot qualify for the Child Tax Credit at all. And many parents who work at low wages cannot get the full CTC. A single parent earning $15,000 a year and who has two children, will receive less than a family with a parent who has a higher paying job. This is a flaw that does nothing but exacerbate inequity and accelerate the racial wealth gap.

Instead of cutting investments in key programs and services, Congress must prioritize funding for human needs and that means passing an expanded Child Tax Credit that reaches the very poorest households.

Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.

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Poverty and Hardship – Then and Now

September 9, 2021 @ 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm

Watch this webinar here. Slides available at this link here.

Every year, CHN provides training on what to expect from the Census Bureau’s annual poverty, income, and health insurance data, and how to find and use the data online. But the pandemic and the ensuing economic shutdown has complicated the data that’s being released and its interpretation. But don’t fret: We’re tailoring our training to prepare you for this year’s needs.

Join us for a webinar that will put the upcoming Census Bureau release in context and tell you how to use its findings.  The Census Bureau’s new data, to be released on Sept. 14, covers the year 2020.  But there is also more current data, available this year for the first time, that we want you to know how to use.  Together, these sources make the case for the package of poverty-fighting policies proposed for action now in Congress.

The timing is perfect for you to learn about and act on this information – so please join us!

Register here.

Presenters:

The Context:  Economic progress means addressing racial and ethnic disparities
William Spriggs:  An economist with a distinguished career in public policy and equity in employment, William Spriggs is a professor in, and former Chair of, the Department of Economics at Howard University and Chief Economist for the AFL-CIO.  He served as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Obama Administration, and had senior economic policy roles at the Economic Policy Institute, National Urban League, and at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

Today’s Reality:  We’ll hear from Christopher Wimer and Megan Curran from the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy and Claire Zippel from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to learn about current monthly poverty estimates and the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse data showing the hardships households face trying to cover regular household expenses, including food, housing, and utilities.

How to Put it Together:  Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, will explain how to use the data coming out on September 14, and how to combine it with the other sources to make the case for a Build Back Better agenda that can lead to unprecedented progress in reducing poverty.

This webinar will be close captioned. Even if you can’t attend, register and we’ll follow up with a captioned recording, slides, and other important resources that will help you learn about and act on the information the Census Bureau is releasing.

Watch this webinar here. Slides available at this link here.

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Date:
September 9, 2021
Time:
2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
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Website:
https://youtu.be/QRcgp-X2Ico

Organizer

Coalition on Human Needs