3.7 million more children in poverty in Jan 2022 without monthly Child Tax Credit
Without the monthly Child Tax Credit, the child poverty rate increased from 12.1 percent in December 2021 to 17 percent in January 2022, the highest rate since the end of 2020.
Second Child Tax Credit payment keeps 3.5 million children out of poverty
According to our latest projections, the child poverty rate declined from 11.9 percent in July 2021 (the month featuring the first CTC payment) to 11.5 percent in August 2021. Without the CTC, the monthly child poverty rate in August 2021 would have been 16.2 percent.
Child poverty drops in July with the Child Tax Credit expansion
According to our latest projections, the monthly SPM poverty rate for children fell from 15.8 percent in June to 11.9 percent in July 2021, representing a decline of 3 million children living in poverty. This drop in child poverty is primarily due to the first payment of the expanded Child Tax Credit.
Forecasting poverty during a crisis
In 2020, we established a novel method of forecasting poverty using the Supplemental Poverty Measure framework with a goal of providing projections of poverty rates throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Our forecasting data provides a real-time poverty data tool for policymakers.