How long will the richest country in the world tolerate millions of our children in poverty?

Urgent action needed to bring back extended CTC, which lifted millions of children out of poverty!

The time is NOW to contact Congress because the reinstatement of the expanded Child Tax Credit is being debated as part of negotiations over the end-of-year tax package. Please ask Congressional leaders and your Congressional representative to reinstate the monthly, fully refundable CTC including the 19 million children currently left out of the full credit because their families' incomes are too low. It is unconscionable to allow corporate tax breaks while denying children and their families this much-needed relief.

Send a letter to Congress TODAY!

The 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) was an overwhelming success! And it is popular: among 2022 voters, 77% of Republicans, 94% of Democrats, and 77% of Independents said it is important to reinstate the expanded CTC. By making it fully refundable (which made it available to the most impoverished families), raising the amount, and paying it out monthly, the expanded CTC resulted in the largest-ever decline in child poverty in a single year. But Congress failed to make that expansion permanent, driving 3.7 million children back into poverty. One impact: food insufficiency increased by 25% after the first missed CTC payment in 2022. And no means testing. Women caregivers across incomes are at risk of domestic violence, the Child Tax Credit provides an extra boost that helps families get to safety.

Who is left out if the expanded CTC is not reinstated?  

• 5 million children in Veteran and Active-Duty Military families lost out when the expanded CTC was not renewed.

• 19 million children - about 1/4 of all children, including nearly half of Black children, 4 in 10 Indigenous children, and 1 in 3 Latinx children - are in families whose incomes are too low to receive the full tax credit.

• 33% of children in rural areas.

“I have a special needs son. Without the Child Tax Credit, some highly beneficial interventions that are not covered by his insurance are not accessible. I earn very low income due to caring for him, which is unpaid for, and I cannot afford paying for those interventions. My little girl’s extra-curricular activities have been taken away. She schools online and I have to fill in the necessary activities for her total development. Without the Child Tax Credit I am unable to give those essentials to my children.” –Mother in Pennsylvania  

“What it means is we’re really struggling again. What it means is I have to decide whether to fix my car to do my delivery job or to pay rent on time. It means my daughter’s glasses broke and I can’t afford to get her new ones until her insurance kicks in. We’re struggling over which bills to pay and which not to pay. My son now needs an urgent medical procedure done in Pittsburgh, two hours away, and I have to figure out how we’re going to get there and stay over a few days.” – Indigenous mother in Altoona PA

“The CTC was helping me catch up on my bills, but now I’m going to have to be starting all over again. Plus food prices went up, and food’s going up more. With the CTC being shut off, some people’s going to be hungry again. That’s going to be a struggle because they ain’t upping your food stamps.” –Grandmother caring for 3 grandchildren in Philadelphia

See additional testimonies

Raising children is work: mothers and other family caregivers are already working!

Those blocking the expanded CTC say it should have a work requirement. What! Are they saying that caregiving is not work? That unpaid caregivers contribute nothing to society? That grandparents raising grandchildren should get a job outside the home? What about parents with disabilities, those who are full time students? Are they saying that mothers and other primary caregivers only have value if they leave their children in the care of others and take any job outside the home? They’re ignoring the $1.5 trillion that unpaid caregivers contribute to the US economy.

There is no evidence that the expanded Child Tax Credit caused a decline in parents who work outside the home. Additionally, primary caregivers include grandmothers who step up to care for children whose parents are impacted by the opioid epidemic or incarceration and to care for children who might otherwise end up in foster care with or adopted strangers. And these caregivers are in “conservative” and “liberal” states, rural & urban.

Of Wealthy Nations, the US is Close to the Bottom in Resources for Families

The US is way behind other western countries in providing benefits for families; when it comes to cash benefits for children the US is second to last. According to UNICEF, increasing government spending on cash benefits would result in significant reductions in child poverty. Hundreds of organizations are saying to Congress no tax credits for corporations without extending the CTC!

After sending your letters and calling your members of Congress, click here for sample tweets. Tag your members of Congress and spread the word to your network.

Issued by Global Women’s Strike (GWS), Women of Color GWS, and Care Income Now! (US) careincomenow@globalwomenstrike.net | Twitter/X | Instagram