How the Expanded Child Tax Credit Helps Needy Families

• ​A permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) would do more to reduce hunger among our nation’s children than any single policy has in decades.
• The CTC is the United States’ largest federal expenditure on children – but formerly it was not structured to reach the children who need it most.
• Before the one-year CTC expansion, an estimated 27 million children lived in families that did not qualify for the full tax credit, including half of Blacks and Latinos and 70 percent of single mothers.
• Formerly, single mother with two children needed to earn more than $30,000 to qualify for the full tax credit, while a single mother earning $200,000 received the full credit.
• Children from groups that have disproportionately high hunger rates will benefit most by expanding the CTC:
  o Poverty among Black children will be cut by 52 percent.
  o Poverty among Latino children will be cut by 45 percent.
  o Poverty among Native American children will be cut by 62 percent.
  o Poverty among White children will be cut by 39 percent.
  o Poverty among Asian American and Pacific Islander children will be cut by 37 percent.
• Because most households use up their monthly SNAP benefits by the third week of the month, the monthly CTC payments will help families close the gap and put food on the table every day of the month.
• Bottom line – permanently expanding the CTC would do a lot to help families put food on the table for years to come.