The Role of Government Transfers in the Child Poverty Gap by Race and Ethnicity: A Focus on Black, Latino, and White Children
This brief provides insights into the impact of government assistance on shaping racial and ethnic inequities in child poverty. It provides an update to a prior analysis of the Black-White child poverty gap and introduces new findings on the Latino-White child poverty gap.
The Increased Antipoverty Effects of the Expanded Childless Earned Income Tax Credit in 2021
This fact sheet examines the impacts of the 2021 American Rescue Plan expansion of the childless portion of the Earned Income Tax Credit on poverty rates. For all childless adults, but especially for young adults, the temporary expansion of the childless Earned Income Tax Credit enhanced its antipoverty effects.
The EITC and the CTC Give Temporary Income Boost to Low-Income Families
Due to refundable tax credits, monthly poverty fell from 14.4% in February 2022 to 10.8% in March 2022, and for children from 16.7% to 9.9%.
Monthly Cash Payments Reduce Spells of Poverty Across the Year
Taking the expanded Child Tax Credit under the American Rescue Plan and the existing Earned Income Tax Credit as examples, this brief shows how monthly benefit delivery has the power to smooth within-year volatility in incomes and reduce child poverty year-round.
The Role of Government Transfers in the Black-White Child Poverty Gap
This policy brief examines the role of government transfers and tax credits in closing the Black-White child poverty gap. Government transfers and tax credits are effective in raising incomes for Black children in poverty, yet are entirely ineffective in closing the Black-White child poverty gap.
State Fact Sheets: Policy Options to Address Youth and Young Adult Poverty
We explore the anti-poverty effects of federal policy options in the areas of basic needs, family tax, and economic opportunity for youth and young adults. We break out state-level results across three age groups: ages 14 to 17, ages 18 to 24, and the whole youth and young adult population (ages 14 to 24), as well as by racial and ethnic groups.
The Potential Poverty Reduction Effect of the American Families Plan
We find the proposed American Families Plan–which continues a set of pandemic-era supports, with additional anti-poverty policies–could reduce the national poverty rate in 2022 by nearly one-quarter and child poverty by nearly half.
The Potential Poverty Reduction Effect of the American Rescue Plan
We find that an economic relief package with an expanded Child Tax Credit, nutrition assistance, unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and more could cut child poverty by more than half in 2021.
Monthly Poverty Rates in the United States during the Covid-19 Pandemic
In contrast to traditional annual poverty rates, we track monthly poverty rates before and throughout the pandemic. Government policy interventions successfully offset the worst of the pandemic’s effects, but monthly poverty increases hit Black and Latino communities, and all children, harder.
Using the EITC and CTC to Smooth Income Instability: Potential Effects of a “Lookback” on Poverty
We examine the potential effects of a “lookback” provision on poverty which would allow EITC and CTC claimants to look back one year when filing taxes to maximize their credit and smooth earnings instability.