“There is a real case to be made for a child tax credit to be made permanent, or at least continued for the next year,” one of the study’s co-authors said.
The discontinuation of the nationwide child tax credits led to an increase of 3.7 million children in poverty across the country—a 41 percent increase between December 2021 and January 2022, according to a new study. Child poverty rates rose from 12.1 percent in December to 17 percent last month, according to the study published by the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy. The study’s co-authors said that 17 percent represents the highest rate since the end of the 2020 calendar year. Megan Curran, policy director for the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy, told Newsweek that she and her colleagues, Sophie Collyer and Zachary Parolin, began looking at the impact of child tax credits in a monthly framework since the beginning of 2020—or when the COVID-19 pandemic was first universally recognized. “By mid-2021 most of those other pieces [stimulus checks and expanded unemployment benefits] had expired and the child tax credits was really the central piece of ongoing pandemic relief, particularly for families with children,” Curran told Newsweek. The study was conducted using the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which analyzes and tracks poverty on a monthly basis amid varying economic circumstances that coincide with federal policies and the ongoing pandemic. Curran said the system takes into account household incomes and taxes plus essential costs, such as money used for commuting or healthcare. Averages vary nationally due to housing costs, though if the average family of two adults and two children in an average-cost city is below $28,000, that is defined as being in poverty. Data showed that the child tax credits kept 3-4 million children out of poverty when they were distributed by the Internal Revenue Service between July and December 2021, she said. Payments made were worth up to $250 per child for those ages 6 to 17, while children under 6 received up to $300 each. Month-by-month poverty reduction rates throughout the duration of the child tax credit payments are as follows: 3 million children in July; 3.
