A better child tax credit during the COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated simultaneous public health and economic crises in the United States on a scale not seen before. Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy projections indicate that COVID-19-related unemployment could see U.S. poverty rates rise to the highest levels in half a century. Child poverty, in particular, risks a significant increase. If the national unemployment rate rises to 30 percent, child poverty could increase by 54 percent—with more than one in five children living below the poverty line. Hunger is already pervasive: a new survey finds that since the pandemic hit, one in five households with young children are now food insecure. Family economic insecurity is compounded by children’s more immediate losses of parents and loved ones—with a disproportionate toll taken on the Black community and other minority groups.

Emergency relief passed to date, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, is critical to mitigate this impact. But the federal response has not focused on children. Existing policy tools can be mobilized to help. In particular, the Child Tax Credit—one of the largest federal programs for children—can be made more generous, reach the one-third of children who are currently left out, and be delivered on a monthly basis to support children and families through the immediate crisis period and until the economy recovers.