Under current law, too many children in families with the lowest incomes receive no CTC or receive a smaller credit than children in families with higher incomes. Expanding the CTC so that it reaches more of those children will go a long way toward improving families’ ability to make ends meet and reducing child poverty.  Policymakers should prioritize expanding the Child Tax Credit for children who receive a partial credit or none at all because their families’ incomes are too low. These families face the greatest challenges in making ends meet and coping with recent high inflation. Reinstating the expanded CTC would not only improve families’ ability to put food on the table, but also benefit the economy and spur job growth. The Niskanen Center found that, if an expanded CTC was in place for another year, it would support the equivalent of more than 500,000 private-sector jobs.

Now is the time to expand the EITC for workers paid low wages who do not have children living with them. This part of the EITC has not been adjusted for nearly 30 years (outside a temporary, one-year ARP expansion) and as a result, about 6 million of these low-income workers 19 and older have incomes below the poverty line, once federal taxes are considered. This commonsense proposal is long overdue and has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. 

E-mail Congress now to expand these common sense policies for Americans who are currently shut out of the credits recover to become more resilient for the crises ahead.

We need a few pieces of information to connect you with your lawmakers. Fill out the form below to be connected and send an e-mail. Personalized messages are especially effective.

If you are in need of assistance, please call 211 or visit 211.org/ to be connected to support and programs in your community.