America’s families with children are one step closer to an infusion of money that could potentially lift millions of children out of poverty and provide seed capital for better lives.
Next $ 1,400 stimulus checks and more unemployment benefits, the $ 1.9 trillion financial stimulus package Saturday passed in the Senate extends the entitlement of the child tax credit and makes the payouts of the credit more generous.
The IRS would send recurring direct payments to parents from July through December and flat-rate the remainder in the next tax season.
Biden’s full aid proposal could cut the child poverty rate in half by lifting 5 million children out of poverty Columbia University Center for Poverty and Social Policy.
There are no specific spending requirements for child tax credit cash, but parents can certainly find many ways to use the funds to meet the rising cost of raising children.
“All in all, the US bailout will be one of the largest poverty alleviation bills in recent history,” said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on Saturday in the Senate ahead of the 50-49 vote by party political standards.
It’s not a closed deal yet. The House of Representatives has yet to vote on the Senate bill, and President Joe Biden has to sign it. When Schumer spoke to reporters after it was passed, he expected the bill to pass through the house and bear Biden’s signature in front of the federal unemployment benefits End later in the month.
“This plan is historic,” said Biden on Saturday afternoon, stressing twice that the bill can cut the child poverty rate in half.
Read: Biden expects payouts for stimuli to start later this month
Changes to child tax credit are for a year – but that’s for now, Hope advocates. “This is a really important and significant change in policy,” said Michele Dallafior, senior vice president of budget and taxation for First Focus on Children, prior to the vote. “And the next step will be to make it permanent.”
Critics wish it never got that far. Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who voted “no,” said the entire bill was freaky and focused on liberal priorities rather than relief aimed at the pandemic.
“We could have delivered the same amount of COVID relief in half the time at a third the cost to the taxpayer, and that would have been non-partisan,” he said in a statement following the vote.
How the Child Extended Tax Credit Would Work
The current child tax credit pays up to $ 2,000 per child under the age of 17. Up to $ 1,400 of the tax credit can be used towards a tax refund, while the other $ 600 can only be used to deduct a household’s tax burden. A taxpayer applying for the credit must have earned income of at least $ 2,500 in order to unlock the money that can be used for a refund.
The loan expires when people make $ 200,000 and couples make $ 400,000.
According to the newly passed bill, the Child Tax Credit now pays up to $ 3,600 for children under the age of 6. It also pays up to $ 3,000 for children over that age. It is now paid for 17 year olds too.
The $ 2,500 income threshold will be cleared and the balance will be fully refunded on the invoice.
Income Eligibility Rules for the Loan Level Stimulus Review Rules: Full Payments apply to individuals earning less than $ 75,000, married couples earning less than $ 150,000, and single parents filing as head of household and less than Earn $ 112,500. The payments expire above these points.
Katherine Michelmore, professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said lifting the income threshold is a particular benefit for black and Latin American children who live disproportionately in households below the income threshold.
Around 6.7 million children are not entitled to the current loan because their household earns too little, according to Michelmore’s research. That’s 10% of all children in the country her study said. Another 17 million children are missing out on the full strength of the loan due to partial refund rules, their study found. That’s about another 25% of the kids in America.
“What this reform does is it takes deserving out of the equation entirely,” said Michelmore.
This is a grave mistake, say some critics. The Biden proposal “would remove labor obligations from one of the largest monetary aid programs and restore the welfare principle as an unconditional entitlement”. wrote Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow at the right-wing Heritage Foundation. “By increasing cash benefits while eliminating labor needs, the Biden Plan would increase dependency and decrease labor.”
Michelmore, excited about the passage of the Senate bill, disagrees. “I don’t think the amount of credit is big enough to prevent work that is deterring.”
“As a health investment alone, child benefit is a remarkably good investment.”
Recurring payments are important for families with difficult finances, said Dallafior. That can be money for basic needs, school costs and the peace of mind of the parents. “Research shows that a steady stable income reduces stress, which also translates into better results for a child.”
These types of payouts will cost the government a lot of money, the researchers admit.
The revised loan will cost $ 100 billion annually, but could yield $ 800 billion in societal benefits, according to Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
For example, there is the increased income of children with better starts and the additional taxes on those incomes. “Considered a health investment alone, child support is a remarkably good investment,” the researchers wrote.
Of course, parents know a thing or two about children and expenses.
A middle-income family would have to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars to raise a child from birth to the age of 17, according to data an analysis 2017 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Adjusted for inflation, this is still a cost increase of almost 16% compared to what a family had to spend raising a child in 1960.
The pandemic has kept this expensive trend alive.
Weekly prices for nannies, after-school programs, and daycare have increased, according to an analysis by Care.com, a platform for parents and carers. For example, in 2020 parents paid an average of $ 209 per week for a toddler to attend childcare, a 3.5% increase over the previous year.
The bill also provides $ 39 billion for both childcare costs and difficult childcare facilities. It can come soon enough, said Sarah Rittling, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an organization that advocates equal access to quality childcare and early education.
“With today’s Senate vote,” she said, “American families and businesses, including childcare workers, are one step closer to the relief they desperately need.”
