Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Commentary: Harris wants to bring back the expanded child tax credit. Here’s why that’s good.

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Brittani Barnett remembers the financial security she felt for six months in 2021 when she received an extra $300 per month from the expanded child tax credit.

The single mom of three from Charlotte, N.C., bought clothes for her youngest daughter, then 5, and helped her son with a down payment on a car so he could get to work and help shuttle around his baby sister.

“For me, the supplement meant an extra cushion every month. You knew it was coming,” said Barnett, who is starting a job with the Low Income Energy Assistance Program in her state.

The monthly payments expired in December 2021, but Vice President Kamala Harris wants to reinstate and enhance the credit if she wins the White House.

Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has floated increasing the child tax credit amount, but the Trump campaign has not endorsed that effort. It does want to make the tax changes Trump ushered in his first term permanent, which expanded the child tax credit amount to $2,000 per child from $1,000.

The expanded credit already has shown what it can do to fight poverty and hunger in the short time it was implemented. Bringing it back now could alleviate the economic pressures Americans continue to report because of higher prices, especially among the most financially vulnerable families.

“If they were to bring it back now, it would be helpful, especially now with inflation,” Barnett said. “I struggle every day trying to figure out what we can afford to eat and what is beneficial for our health.”

Brittani Barnett (left) received an extra $300 per month from the expanded child tax credit in 2021. “If they were to bring it back now, it would be helpful, especially now with inflation,” she said. (Photo courtesy of Brittani Barnett)

Under the American Rescue Plan Act, the child tax credit gave families $3,600 for every child in the household under 6 and $3,000 for every child between 6 and 17. That was up from the credit’s original maximum value of $2,000 per child.

On top of that, the relief package made the credit fully refundable, getting rid of minimum income requirements that kept the poorest families from qualifying for the full credit. Half the credit was distributed to families in monthly installments from July 2021 to December 2021 — the payments that helped Barnett and millions of families keep up with the ongoing costs of raising kids.

As a result of these changes — especially the credit’s refundability — the child poverty rate hit a historic low of 5.2% in 2021, while food insufficiency among low-income families dropped by 25%.

Other surveys found the payments allowed parents to stay current on their bills, build savings, and even start businesses. Phone interviews that The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) conducted after the expansion found that parents also could throw a birthday party for their child for the first time or afford an instrument so their child could join their high school’s marching band.

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