Across the 50 states, children are left out of the Child Tax Credit
The Child Tax Credit is the largest federal expenditure for children, but a third of children do not reap the full benefit of this credit. The children excluded from the full credit are those in families whose earnings are not high enough to qualify. Building off of previous work, this brief examines the variation in Child Tax Credit receipt by state and congressional district, finding that children in areas where incomes are lower and poverty rates are higher are those most likely to be left out. These results suggest that proposals to extend the the Child Tax Credit to families who are currently losing out could have a substantial impact on child poverty in the United States.
Columbia University and Robin Hood launch a new collaboration with the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker
Launched in 2017, this study is following a representative sample of more than 1,500 families with young children in New York City. The longitudinal study seeks to shed light on the challenges and resources that shape the development of children during the critical early years. Read our first report as we begin to explore the data on the lives of the youngest New Yorkers.
Nearly half of New Yorkers couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense with cash
Using Poverty Tracker data, we find that nearly half of New Yorkers would not be able to cover an unanticipated $400 expense. Moreover, at every income level, racial and ethnic minorities in New York are markedly less likely to be able to cover such an expense with cash. These findings reveal both a city and a nation in which nearly half of its citizens are unprepared for a modest emergency expense without relying on friends, family, or creditors to help pay the cost.
Over 100,000 New Yorkers are forced out of their housing within a year
The Poverty Tracker housing module provides a first look at the experiences and trajectories of New Yorkers who are forced out of their housing. We find that over 100,000 New Yorkers are forced out of their housing within a year. Further, these forced moves and evictions play a role in concentrating poverty in New York City—people were more likely to relocate to higher poverty areas after being forced to move. These findings underscore the importance of the policy reforms that city and state lawmakers are instituting to promote housing stability.
CPSP’s Zach Parolin shows that state-level policy differences contribute to racial differences in child poverty
In a new study in Socio-Economic Review, Parolin finds that racial inequities in states’ administration of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program contribute meaningfully to the black-white child poverty gap. His study shows that states with higher shares of black residents are less likely to prioritize the ‘provision of cash assistance’, but more likely to spend TANF funds on the ‘discouragement of lone motherhood’. Removing the inequities in states’ TANF spending priorities would reduce the black–white child poverty gap by up to 15%—comparable to the reduction effect of moving all children in single-mother households to two-parent households. Read more at the Atlantic.
Fighting poverty with jobs: projecting the impacts of a national subsidized employment program
In recent months, several policy makers have discussed proposals for ambitious jobs programs, including Representative Ro Khanna, and Senators Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bernie Sanders. In this brief, we examine how a national subsidized jobs program would affect poverty rates. Our analysis is modeled on the comprehensive employment program put forth by California Rep. Ro Khanna. In this joint report by the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, we find that such a program would reach millions of U.S. workers left behind in today’s economy, reducing the poverty rate among participants by nearly half.
Left behind: The one-third of children in families who earn too little to get the full Child Tax Credit
The current federal Child Tax Credit provides up to $2,000 per child per year to qualifying children, but low-income families lose out because they do not have enough earnings to qualify for the full benefit. This brief documents who is currently “left behind” in terms of realizing the full benefits of the federal Child Tax Credit because of the CTC’s earnings requirement, finding that those left out are disproportionately children of color, those in families with young children, those with single parents, and those who reside in rural areas. Adopting a more equitable, fully-refundable Child Tax Credit that is not tied to earnings would effectively remedy these inequities and meaningfully increase the after-tax incomes of those who are currently left behind.
Progressive tax credit proposals and the potential effects on poverty in New York City
In this brief, we report on the potential anti-poverty impacts of some of the most prominent tax credit proposals arising from the 2020 presidential campaign on New York City.
The case for extending state-level child tax credits to those left out: 50-state analysis
Expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) at the state level could lift millions of children out of poverty and help families who benefited little or not at all from the 2017 federal expansion of the CTC, according to a 50-state report released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.
Eliminating the Child Tax Credit earnings requirement does more to impact child poverty than increasing benefit levels
The American Family Act's proposed reforms to the Child Tax Credit present an opportunity to transform the credit into one that works for all children, not just those whose parents earn enough to qualify. We find that the AFA would move 4 million children out of poverty and cut deep poverty among children in half. If the CTC’s credit values were to increase, as they do in the AFA, but with the credit still tied to earnings, this impact would be greatly reduced, and children with the fewest resources would again be left out.
“Baby bonds” would dramatically reduce racial wealth inequality
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the distribution of wealth in the United States has grown increasingly unequal over the past half-century, especially along racial lines. Lawmakers and researchers have proposed to address the issue by introducing universal “baby bonds,” paid to each newborn in the United States and preserved until the individual reaches young adulthood. By tying bond values to net worth rather than to income, the proposed scheme intends to better address the extremely persistent racial disparities in net wealth.
A new study by Naomi Zewde, a postdoctoral research scientist at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, finds that the policy would considerably narrow wealth inequalities by race while simultaneously improving the net-asset position of all young adults and alleviating the increasing concentration of wealth at the top.
Medicaid work requirements could cost families over $1,000 per year, throwing many into poverty
For many low-income households, losing Medicaid coverage means entering poverty. The current administration has called on states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. Last year, three states began requiring documentation of employment for Medicaid eligibility and seven more states have similar proposals pending. The impact of such legislation goes beyond the often critically important loss of healthcare. Loss of Medicaid means an increase in medical-out-of-pocket spending, and those families subject to increased medical costs are vulnerable to falling into poverty. In our latest brief, we simulate the impact of work requirements on medical expenses and poverty. We find that close to 3 million individuals would lose coverage, annual medical expenses could rise by over $1,000 per family losing coverage, and over 130,000 Americans would enter poverty if work requirements were imposed on Medicaid recipients.