Several families in the United States are struggling to feed themselves since the payments from the Child Tax Credit, expanded by President Joe Biden in 2021, have stopped, according to a recent study.
Nearly half of parents who used to get the checks now say they can't afford enough food to feed their families, in addition to the increased costs of food, families are noticing rising prices of gasoline, child care, and rent due to inflation, the survey showed.
A survey conducted by non-profit Parents Together Action indicated that 48% of families who benefitted from Child Tax Credit checks say they find it challenging to feed their families since the payment stopped. More than 90% of families in America find it hard to make ends meet, per a report from Local 12.
More than 60% of respondents believe it's tough to meet their family's basic necessities. Some people have even ceased saving for the future to catch pace with soaring prices.
The survey conducted in May had 500 parents as respondents.
US Families Hope Child Tax Credit Would Be Reinstated
For the 2021 tax year, the credit was increased from $2,000 to $3,000, with a $600 bonus for children under the age of six. Half of the credit was distributed in monthly installments from July to December 2021, with $300 deposits for children under the age of six and $250 deposits for those aged six to 17. When families paid their taxes in 2022, they received the remaining half of the credit in one lump amount.
When Biden's $1.75 trillion economic proposals, Build Back Better, failed to pass in December 2021, the payments came to a halt, per CNBC.
Many families are hopeful that the child tax credit will be reinstated due to inflationary increases in the cost of food, gas, childcare, and rent, but it is uncertain whether this will happen.
Without the child tax credit, an estimated 10 million children under the age of 18 will return to poverty.
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Christian Leaders Urge Congress To Extend Child Tax Credit
After lawmakers allowed an expanded version of the child tax credit to expire last year, a campaign led by a broad coalition of Christian leaders urged Congress to extend it to low-income families.
According to a Washington Post report, the campaign supports including a widely accessible version of the child tax credit update in a bill working its way through the budget reconciliation process, as per a letter sent by the group to all 535 members of Congress and the White House days ago and published in Politico Magazine.
The Christian group's letter, sent to Religion News Service, stated: "As you work to craft an economic reconciliation bill, we would like to lift up one preeminent priority: making the Child Tax Credit fully refundable and available to low-income families on a permanent basis."
"To pass a reconciliation bill without including a permanent and fully refundable Child Tax Credit would be morally indefensible," the authors concluded.
Rev. Jim Wallis and Georgetown University's Center on Faith and Justice spearheaded the initiative, supported by the Rev. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; the Rev. Eugene Cho, president of Bread for the World; and the Rev. Amy Reumann, director of advocacy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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