When anti-poverty programs don’t keep up with inflation, families are left behind
The Child Tax Credit and many other government benefits don’t currently increase with inflation. Policy indexation, an often overlooked aspect of policy design, would fix this.
Tax credits give income boost, but regular monthly cash payments would reduce poverty year round
The tax filing season is an important one for many families as it provides meaningful boosts to family income and a temporary dip in monthly poverty rates. However, in recent research we find that regular monthly cash payments would help reduce poverty year round.
Eliminating the Child Tax Credit earnings requirement does more to impact child poverty than increasing benefit levels
The American Family Act's proposed reforms to the Child Tax Credit present an opportunity to transform the credit into one that works for all children, not just those whose parents earn enough to qualify. We find that the AFA would move 4 million children out of poverty and cut deep poverty among children in half. If the CTC’s credit values were to increase, as they do in the AFA, but with the credit still tied to earnings, this impact would be greatly reduced, and children with the fewest resources would again be left out.