What Can We Do TODAY to End Child Poverty?
Making the Expanded Child Tax Credit Permanent Will Lift Millions of Children Out of Poverty
In the United States, the wealthiest nation on earth, nearly 1 in 5 children live in poverty. Ohio mirrors these statistics as well. These children often face inadequate health care and nutrition, untreated illness, unsafe child care, unstable housing and inferior schools. CDF believes permitting more than 12.8 million children, 500,000 in Ohio, to live in poverty when we have the means to prevent it is unjust and unacceptable. It is also economically and socially dangerous: child poverty costs our nation nearly $700 billion a year in lost productivity and extra health and crime costs.
For these reasons, the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio supports making the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent. It is a research-based strategy to dramatically reduce child poverty throughout the United States.
On July 15, 2021, tens of millions of families covering nearly 60 million children across America will begin receiving monthly Child Tax Credit payments
For every child 6-17 years old, eligible families will get up to $250 each month, and for every child under 6 years old, eligible families will get up to $300 each month.
What does this mean?
More than 1.2 million families in Ohio will get a check in July.
Over $550 million for Ohio families to help 2.1 million children thrive.
According to a report published by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in March 2021, the expanded CTC will lift 132,000 children under the age of 18 out of poverty.
The American Rescue Plan provides the largest ever Child Tax Credit as a way of recognizing that raising children is expensive and providing for the wellbeing is in the public interest. Families will receive $3,000-$3,600 per child. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple
or $112,500 for a family with a single parent (also called Head of Household).
The expanded Child Tax Credit is a major step forward in tackling child poverty. Prior to the American Rescue Plan, low-income families often got a smaller child tax credit than families with higher earnings. Now, the families of over 26 million children will get the full, expanded credit.
To learn more, visit ChildTaxCredit.gov or the Children’s Defense Fund’s Direct Advocacy Hub. Let’s make this permanent!
Learn More About Accessing the Child Tax Credit
On August 16, 2021, CDF-Ohio partnered with Children’s Defense Fund, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), the Ohio Organizing Coalition, the Southeast Ohio Legal Aid Services, and HAPCAP on a webinar to share more about the Child Tax Credit, how families can access the benefit, and why it’s important to make this permanent.
View the webinar recording here.
For more information about Child Tax Credit, check out these resources:
About the American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit:
- CDF: Understanding the Expanded Child Tax Credit
- Download flyers to share with your colleagues here.
Where Families Can Go for Free Tax Help:
- IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Programs: Find one near you here
- Local legal services organizations and/or Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITCs)
- GetYourRefund.org, an initiative of Code for America (English and Spanish)
- IRS Free File programs for families with incomes below $72,000
- White House: www.childtaxcredit.gov
- IRS: https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021
- IRS Technical FAQs: https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/2021-child-tax-credit-and-advance-child-tax-credit-payments-frequently-asked-questions
- Get it back: What’s New About the Child Tax Credit in 2021? https://www.taxoutreach.org/tax-credits/child-tax-credit/whats-new-about-the-child-tax-credit-in-2021/
- Non-filer Sign-up Tool: https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-non-filer-sign-up-tool
Join the Automatic Benefit for Children (ABC) coalition co-chaired by the Children’s Defense Fund and the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP)
- Mission: Our mission is to create a child allowance, or a guaranteed minimum income for children, that provides regular, meaningful assistance to families, promotes racial equity and justice, enjoys broad public support, and serves as a foundation for a more equitable and inclusive social support system.
- Sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScNAxcCBZQnSAeXBSaaNRWkJpzzLPD559eS5FOKcFramf4hbg/viewform
- Use our Direct Advocacy Form: https://www.childrensdefense.org/ctc-advocacy-hub/
Report: U.S. Can Lift 5.5. Million Children Out of Poverty Right Now
The Children’s Defense Fund’s new edition of our Ending Child Poverty Now report shows our nation can help millions of today’s children escape poverty now by simply improving and investing in existing policies and programs to increase employment, make work pay and meet children’s basic needs. By investing an additional 1.4 percent of the federal budget into these proven policies and programs, our nation can reduce child poverty at least 57 percent, lift 5.5 million …read more
| Child Poverty Statistics | Ohio | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Children in poverty | 20% | 18% |
| Children ages 0 to 5 in poverty | 23% | 20% |
| Black or African American children ages 0 to 5 in poverty | 48% | 37% |
| Hispanic or Latino children ages 0 to 5 in poverty | 39% | 28% |
| Non-Hispanic White children ages 0 to 5 in poverty | 16% | 12% |
| Children receiving food assistance | 1 in 3 | 1 in 4 |
| Children whose parents lack secure employment | 28% | 27% |
| Black or African American children whose parents lack secure employment | 47% | 42% |
| Hispanic or Latino children whose parents lack secure employment | 40% | 32% |
| Non-Hispanic White children whose parents lack secure employment | 23% | 21% |
Our vision
Today, more children in Ohio live in poverty than did before the Great Recession began in 2008. An unacceptable number of Ohio children are also growing up in low-income working families. A disproportionate number are Black and Latino. Poor children often lag behind their peers in many ways beyond income: They are often less healthy, can trail in emotional and intellectual development, and are less likely to graduate from high school. Poor children are more likely to become poor parents. Every year we let children live in poverty, it costs our nation half a trillion dollars in lost productivity and increased health and crime costs.
Our vision is to end child poverty. We must ensure all parents and caregivers have the resources to support and nurture their children: jobs with livable wages, affordable high-quality child care, supports for working families like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, and safety nets for basic needs like nutrition and housing assistance. We must also ensure every child in Ohio has access to high-quality early childhood development and learning, comprehensive health coverage and care, and quality K-12 education so all children can reach their full potential.
Our work
In our annual Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT reports, we detail how Ohio children are doing on a variety of child well-being indicators, including poverty. Our KIDS COUNT data shows how children of color and children in Ohio’s Appalachian and rural counties suffer disproportionately from the effects of poverty.
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