New census poverty data confirms it — we need to expand the child tax credit!
In new data on poverty in 2023, the U.S. Census reports that the child poverty rate increased last year by 1.3 percent to 13.7 percent overall. This translates to millions of children living in poverty. The data also shows that if the child tax credit (CTC) was not in place, 2.4 million more people (most of them kids) would have experienced living in poverty. However, this is still less than half the people who were helped when the expanded CTC was in place in 2021.
Years of data show that the CTC is one of our most effective means to reduce child poverty. And politicians know it. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. JD Vance have called for expanding the CTC if elected.
I urge all candidates running this year to make expanding the child tax credit priority number one when the new Congress and administration take office in January.
Janet Kregelstein, Bountiful
