The Child Tax Credit and Family Well-Being: An Overview of Reforms and Impacts

Abstract

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) has become an increasingly important element of the U.S. safety net. We discuss the structure of the CTC and its effects on childhood poverty and other indicators of well-being during its three distinct phases: prior to the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) expansion, during the expansion, and after the expansion’s expiration. We also examine recent efforts to establish state-level CTCs. We show that, in 2020, roughly one in three children were ineligible for the full CTC because it is tied to family earnings. The temporary expansion under the ARP extended full CTC eligibility to nearly all of these children, thus moving more than three million children out of poverty in the expansion months. State-level analyses show how states could establish CTCs that reduce child poverty rates by half, either as a complement to an expanded federal CTC or in the absence of a continued federal expansion.