The increased child care tax credit has ended — for now

Amanda Peacher Jan 17, 2022
Heard on:
HTML EMBED:
COPY
A protestor and child in Brooklyn urge Congress to make the expanded child tax credit permanent in July. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ParentsTogether

The increased child care tax credit has ended — for now

Amanda Peacher Jan 17, 2022
Heard on:
A protestor and child in Brooklyn urge Congress to make the expanded child tax credit permanent in July. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ParentsTogether
HTML EMBED:
COPY

For six months last year, most households with kids received a monthly cash deposit from the increased advanced child tax credit — up to $300 per child.

The payments came through typically around this time — but not this month. And some families had come to depend on that extra money.

For Alana Truss in Las Vegas, the monthly deposits from the child tax credit went toward gas and groceries.

“We definitely relied on it,” she said.

Truss has a teenager at home and a daughter in college. Both she and her husband work, and she said the money eased financial pressure they’d been living with for a long time.

“It definitely helped with, you know, getting us through to the next paycheck,” Truss said.

This child tax credit has helped reduce food insecurity nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And most families put the cash toward other necessities as well, said Natalie Foster, co-chair and co-founder of the Economic Security Project — like rent and utilities.

“And there will be families who are surprised and very disappointed to not receive the checks this month,” she said.

Critics of the expanded credit say it was expensive, and that it should come with a work requirement for parents.

The Joe Biden administration hoped to continue the payments in the Build Back Better bill, but for now, that legislation is stalled.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.