Almost 4 million American children fell into poverty last month after the expanded child tax credit (CTC) expired, according to a study released Thursday by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, The Hill reported. The lapse of monthly CTC payments in January pushed 3.7 million children below the poverty line, according to federal data analyzed by the Columbia researchers. The child poverty rate rose from 12.1 percent in December to 17 percent in January — an increase of 41 percent. "While in place, the monthly child tax credit payments buffered family finances amidst the continuing pandemic, increased families’ abilities to meet their basic needs, reduced child poverty and food insufficiency, and had no discernable negative effects on parental employment," the authors of the study wrote. The $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed by President Biden in March 2021 increased the amount of money parents receive through the CTC to $250 per child between ages 6 and 17 and $300 for each child younger than 6. The bill also removed work requirements for the CTC and allowed parents to collect half of their total annual credit through a series of monthly payments, instead of a one-off tax reduction, from July to December 2021.
