The ARPA
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States engaged in an innovative policy experiment: for one year, the federal government expanded the existing child tax credit—making it available to families with little or no earnings, increasing the credit amount, and providing monthly payments instead of an annual payment at tax time.
In spring 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
- The APRA increased the credit available to parents, especially for families with young children.
- ARPA created a monthly payment schedule from July through December 2021, automatically sending payments to families who had filed taxes, including those who received the stimulus payments, unless they opted out.
- Families became eligible for $300 per month for each child younger than six years old, and $250 per month for each child ages six through 17.
- ARPA made the child tax credit “fully refundable,” allowing families to access the credit even if they had limited or no earnings.
- This expanded child tax credit was incredibly effective: child poverty went down by a record-breaking amount, lifting an estimated 2.9 million children out of poverty. According to the US Census Bureau, the expanded credit lifted one million children under the age of six out of poverty, while it did the same for 1.9 million children between the ages of six and 17.
- However, congress failed to extend the expanded program, and it ended in January 2022.
After ARPA Expired
- The child poverty rate in 2019 as measured by the supplemental poverty rate was 12.5%.
- This rate plummeted to 5.2% in 2021—the largest decline on record.
- New census data out this year shows a dramatic reversal, with the rate of children in poverty skyrocketing to 12.4% in 2022.
- Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy calculated that 3.7 million more children were in poverty due to the expiration of the child tax credit payments in January 2022.
- Overall, census data suggests that child poverty leaped to about 14% in early 2023.
Social Work Policy Makers
Although social work policy professionals do not make policy, they have influenced social policy from the outset of professional social work at the dawn of the 20th century. Catherine Rampell, a columnist at The Washington Post who specializes in public policy and social services was recently interviewed by PBS and offered these insights:
"These numbers are astounding, I think, more than double the child poverty rate in 2022 that we saw in 2021..."
"If you look at the surveys conducted over how people had been spending those funds...it showed that parents primarily reported using the child tax credit dollars on things like basic household necessities, rent, childcare, school supplies, groceries."
"And this was the first time that it (Child tax credit) became available to families with little or even no earnings. So, let's say you're a kid and you're being cared for by an elderly grandparent who cannot work. Your household got that funding too and was able to use it to pay for those necessities to be lifted out of poverty."
The Poverty Problem
- The number of people with incomes below the poverty line in 2022 rose a sobering 15.3 million, today's Census data show, reflecting the expiration of pandemic relief programs including the expanded Child Tax Credit.
- The rise in the poverty rate, the largest on record in over 50 years both overall and for children, underscores the critical role that policy choices play in the level of poverty and hardship in the country.
The Policy Problem
In a free capitalist society, poverty is not easy to eradicate. On both sides of the isle, Congress has always supported some form of child tax credit. Social policy influencers understand how Congress could let the ARPA expire after one year. The problem is in the details, not in the intention.
- With the pandemic now in the rearview mirror, who will qualify for the child tax credit?
- Will the credit continue to be paid monthly or is that too costly for the taxpayer?
- Will tax returns still be the basis for qualification or will the unemployed and elderly still qualify?
- Finally, how will the amount of the credit be determined?
Space prevents us from listing all the details that need to be considered, but you get the idea. Social work policy professionals are constantly working to keep the "need" foremost in the minds of Congress while other professionals work out the details to be thoroughly debated before sound policy can be executed.
Never forget is the social work profession's nagging reminder to policy makers.
