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Policy is personal – so we partnered with parents nationwide to tell their Child Tax Credit stories.
09. 15. 2021
The expanded Child Tax Credit is more than a check — it has helped them deal with risincosts like child care, put food on the table, and make rent.
For families like Christina’s, Alice’s, Amber’s, and Lori’s, the expanded Child Tax Credit is more than a check — it has helped them deal with rising costs like child care, put food on the table, and make rent each month.
Now, if it expires, nearly 10 million will slip back below the poverty line or even deeper into poverty. Our paid media program has amplified their stories in over 15 states to show just how real the consequences are for parents and children if the Child Tax Credit expires.
In the News
Child Poverty Surges After Child Tax Credit Payments End
CBS News
“It’s been a struggle — we have less food on the table,” said Meighen Lovelace, a mom in her 40s who lives in Avon, Colorado, with her two daughters, ages 10 and 14. “I also haven’t been able to get all of my daughter’s medications. Some aren’t covered by insurance, so we haven’t been able to buy those.”
The Increased Child Care Tax Credit Has Ended — for Now
CBS MarketplaceNews
For Alana Truss in Las Vegas, the monthly deposits from the child tax credit went toward gas and groceries.
“We definitely relied on it,” she said.
36 Million Families Face January Without a Child Tax Credit Check: “There Will Be Times I Won’t Eat”
CBS News
“The CTC went away, but grocery prices haven’t gone down,” said Stormy Johnson, 44, a single mother of three in Kingwood, West Virginia, who works as a student support specialist. “Now that I don’t have that payment, the reality of life is that there will be times I won’t eat to make sure my kids can.”
Families Face Budget Strain as Monthly Child Tax Credit Checks Stop
CBS News
American families who depended on the enhanced child tax credit for extra income will not receive payments in January. Stormy Johnson, a mother and student support specialist in West Virginia, joined CBSN to discuss how the lapse is affecting her community and her message to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who opposes the enhanced credit’s extension.
Without Child Tax Credit Payments, Families Forced to Stretch Financial Resources
Cheddar News
When Colleen Caulfield decided to go to graduate school, she did not know how her family would get by without her income. The Wilmington, Delaware mother of two worried about the financial realities of a returning student: would they have enough money to pay for housing and child care and still put food on the table?
West Virginia and Arizona Mothers Talk About Child Tax Credit
ABC News
Finances were already tight for Jennifer Showalter and her two children in West Virginia when the pandemic hit. “I had already been living paycheck to paycheck just to get by.”
WV Mom Stormy Johnson Talking to Hallie Jackson
MSNBC
“With $1,400 extra in expenses, I had $15 left in my paycheck to buy groceries, go to work, anything like that. This Child Tax Credit was helping me put food on the table for my kids. The reality is that I will go without eating so my kids don’t have to.”
‘It’s Going to Hurt Us Tremendously:’ Parents Worry About the End of Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments
CNBC
Without the child tax credit, Stormy Johnson is worried about having enough to eat.
Johnson, 44, works as a student support specialist in Preston County Schools in Kingwood, West Virginia. Since July, she’s been receiving an additional $500 each month through the enhanced child tax credit for her two children, Violet, 14, and Tristan, 13, whom she parents alone.
‘We Can Already Feel the Pinch.’ Families Aren’t Getting Child Tax Credit Checks for the First Time in 6 Months
CNBC
Without a January child tax credit payment, Jen Cousins will have to wait a few extra months to replace the brakes on her minivan, the only car her family of six owns.
Manchin’s Work Requirement for Child Benefits Would Throw Grandparent-led Families Under the Bus
The Washington Post
Why should my granddaughter be punished because of my disability?”
That’s the question West Virginia resident Melissa Boyles would ask Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and any other politicians advocating work requirements for Democrats’ child benefit program — conditions that would throw Boyles’s granddaughter under the bus.
In West Virginia, the Enhanced Child Tax Credit’s Lapse Cuts Deep
The Daily Caller
“The child tax credit enabled me to pay my rent,” said Johnny Walls, an on-site technician in West Virginia who was forced to quit his job when his partner was no longer able to care for his son. “It meant that I had a place to live. I knew that no matter what, my son and I had a roof over our heads.”