On January 14, 36 million families, with 65 million children, should have received their seventh monthly Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment. After six months of monthly advanced payments to support their households’ finances, many were counting on this extra boost to help get them through the winter. With inflation and COVID rates rising every day, families need this support. But since the Build Back Better Act has not passed in Congress, families will go without this month. Without the extra money for transportation, winter clothes, food, utilities and childcare, many families will find the upcoming winter very cold.

While the $250 or $300 monthly payment per child does not and cannot replace a job, what the expanded CTC has done is assist working adults in keeping their jobs by helping them pay for childcare, gas, car repairs, bus passes and other expenses they need to work. A study found that 94% of Child Tax Credit recipients said they would continue to work just as much, or even more, due to the regular payments.

Prior to the credit’s expansion through the America Rescue Plan in 2021, nearly half of all Black and Latinx children were excluded from the full benefit because their families did not owe enough federal income tax to qualify.  This changed when the credit became fully refundable in 2021 and became available immediately to all eligible households. Over the last year, we have seen the power of these payments in reducing the child poverty rate. With each month, more and more children were kept out of poverty—as of December 2021, the number grew to 3.7 million children.  We are on our way to the estimates of cutting overall child poverty by 45% —decreasing poverty by 52% for Black children, 45% for Latinx children and 61% for Indigenous children.

Without the extra money for transportation, winter clothes, food, utilities and childcare, many families will find the upcoming winter very cold.

Without Congress passing the Build Back Better Act, the Child Tax Credit will go from $3,000/$3,600 per child (depending on their age) to $2,000 per child. It will no longer be fully refundable—this means that the lowest income families, the families who need it the most, will no longer receive the full credit. There will be no option for advanced payments each month for families, and 17-year-old children will no longer be eligible. Without the extension of the expanded CTC, the child poverty rate is due to increase for every racial and ethnic group. Almost 10 million children will be thrown back or thrust deeper into poverty.

Join Prosperity Now and fight to keep millions of children out of poverty. Ask your senators to pass the Build Back Better Act to extend the Child Tax Credit expansion so that the credit can continue to have a long-lasting, positive effect on families and children throughout the country. Let's not leave families out in the cold this winter.