The House of Representatives approved a bill on Jan. 31 that will expand the child tax credit in exchange for reinstating three corporate tax breaks. The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 was passed with bipartisan support and is awaiting a vote in the Senate. A date for that vote has yet to be set. Advocates in favor of the bill say this will help lift millions of families and children out of poverty and is a step in the right direction.
“The lowest-income families are going to benefit the most from this,” said Ailen Arreaza, the executive director of ParentsTogether Action, a nonprofit family advocacy organization. “There are still some families who are not going to qualify for this, and our goal is to expand it to the way it was in 2021 because that was absolutely game changing. But it’s a good first step in that direction.”
A January survey from ParentsTogether Action found that 91% of parents support the expansion of the child tax credit. This finding comes as families report significant challenges staying afloat, with 65% of respondents reporting that their family is having trouble making ends meet and an additional 24% of parents reporting that their families sometimes faced financial struggles. Of the 65% of parents who reported they were currently struggling to make ends meet, 68% reported their biggest challenge was affording food. Others said that affording heat and utilities this winter (56%), paying for essential items like gas, diapers, or formula (56%), and affording housing (42%) were some of their biggest challenges.
“A wonderful thing about the child tax credit is that it has an immediate impact on the day-to-day lives of parents,” Arreaza said. “This is not the kind of policy that is sort of nebulous, and you’re like, ‘Oh, this might help me.’ Parents really feel this.”
Arreaza says some of the most joyous moments of her career were working with parents after they received the child tax credit because they now didn’t have to make impossible decisions between paying their rent and paying medication, buying food, or paying utilities.
The expansion comes more than two years after the child tax credit expired in 2021, which brought the tax credit up to $3,600 per child—a $1,600 difference from its current amount per child. The ParentsTogether Action survey reinforced how impactful the 2021 expanded child tax credit was for families. After it expired in 2022, childhood poverty more than doubled—surging from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. More than two-thirds (68%) of parents surveyed said that the extra financial support from the monthly payments made a difference in their families economic security, with more than half (52%) saying they made a huge difference.
“It could not be clearer: parents across the country want Congress and President Joe Biden to bring back the expanded child tax credit. Overwhelming support for ensuring that lower-income families are able to receive the full credit speaks volumes—parents know how hard it’s been to make ends meet and are demanding action,” said Arreaza. “Parents across the country are mobilizing in support of this bill, knowing it will make a real difference for millions of families.”
Under the bill, approximately 16 million out of the 19 million children currently left out of the full or any child tax credit will benefit, and an estimated 400,000 children will be lifted above the poverty line.
“We see this as a vital step for expanding the child tax credit and an important step forward to addressing our nation’s child hunger crisis,” said Alexandra Ashbrook, the director of root causes and specific populations at the Food Research and Action Center. “We see that hunger and poverty are continuing to soar. And in part that’s been driven by the end of pandemic relief measures … We’ve got to seize the opportunity in front of us and get this over the finish line.”
The goal is to make sure the child tax credit is in effect before families file their 2023 taxes.
“It is going to be an uphill battle to pass this in the Senate,” Arreaza said. “Some Republicans are saying they don’t want to support the bill because it will be handing Biden a win, and it’s just so absurd to play political games with our children this way … It’s a win for children. That’s what this is. We should not be playing political football with kids and families. And we should be doing everything in our power to lift children out of poverty.”
