Brief Child Tax Credit Recipients Experienced a Larger Decline in Food Insecurity and a Similar Change in Employment as Nonrecipients between 2020 and 2021
Michael Karpman, Elaine Maag, Stephen Zuckerman, Doug Wissoker
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The temporary expansion of the child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan delivered monthly payments to most families with children from July through December 2021. We use data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey to compare adults ages 18 to 64 that received the payments with those that did not. We find the share of adults who received the payments reporting food insecurity declined more than the share of adults who did not receive the payments. We found no significant differences in the changes in employment between December 2020 and December 2021 for adults who received the payments and adults who did not receive the payments.
Research and Evidence Family and Financial Well-Being Health Policy Tax and Income Supports Work, Education, and Labor Technology and Data
Expertise Upward Mobility and Inequality Families Social Safety Net Taxes and the Economy Early Childhood
Research Methods Data analysis
Tags Assistance for women and children Economic well-being Earned income tax credit Welfare and safety net programs COVID-19 Employment Federal tax issues and reform proposals Families with low incomes Food insecurity and hunger Individual taxes Labor force Refundable tax credits Taxes and social policy Child Tax Credit Children and youth