Paying for Child Care to Work? Evaluating the Role of Policy in Affordable Care and Child Poverty
Most working parents need child care. We analyze two approaches to reduce child-care expenses for low-income working families: 1) making the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit fully refundable and increasing its generosity, and 2) providing subsidies to increase affordability.
A Lifetime’s Worth of Benefits: The Effects of Affordable, High-quality Child Care on Family Income, the Gender Earnings Gap, and Women’s Retirement Security
CPSP and the National Women’s Law Center demonstrate how investing in child care is an investment in women’s lifetime economic security. Robert Paul Hartley, Columbia School of Social Work faculty affiliate of CPSP, provides evidence that investing in high-quality and affordable child care support for families could increase women’s lifetime earnings and retirement savings.
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.