The child tax credit resembles a universal basic income for children that helps people cope with monthly expenses.
Some 35 million American families have begun receiving their first monthly payment from the U.S. government in an expanded income support program that President Joe Biden said Thursday could help end child poverty.
Under the child tax credit program, which was expanded with Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus, eligible families receive an initial monthly payment of up to $ 300 for each child under the age of six and up to $ 250 for each child.
Payments made to families, which covered about 60 million eligible children, totaled about $ 15 billion in July. Payments are automatic for many U.S. taxpayers, while others must be registered.
Biden wants to expand the extended monthly benefits for years to come as part of a $ 3.5 trillion spending plan that Senate Democrats consider, which awaits strong Republican opposition to the full bill.
“It’s our effort to take another giant step toward ending child poverty in America,” Biden said in a speech. “This can change the lives of so many families.”
The child tax credit resembles a universal basic income for children, although it has income limits. It is expected to help people cope with monthly expenses, from rent to food and daycare.
Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimated that the expansion could reduce the U.S. child poverty rate by as much as 45%.
Critics have said extending credit is expensive and can deter people from working. Some experts said it might not reach some of the poorest Americans who are not part of the tax system.
A $ 1.9 trillion Democrat-backed COVID-19 legislation known as American Rescue Plan enacted in March increased the amount paid to families in the program.
The law set half of the 2021 tax credit to be paid in advance by the Internal Revenue Service in monthly installments from July to December this year.
Biden proposed that the monthly advance payments be permanent and that the benefits be extended at least until 2025.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who successfully advocated for credit growth in 2017, said Democrats’ plans will turn profits into an “anti-labor welfare control” because almost all families can now choose to payment regardless of whether the parents have a job.
“The Biden plan not only abandons incentives for marriage and requirements for work, but will also destroy the child support enforcement system as we know it by sending cash payments to single parents without ensuring that establish child support orders, “Rubio said in a statement Wednesday.
The administration challenged these claims. Treasury Department estimates indicate that 97% of tax credit recipients have salary or self-employment income, while the other 3% are grandparents or have health issues. Credit is also starting to gradually disappear by $ 150,000 for joint applicants, so there is no disincentive for the poor to work because a job would only give them more income.
Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet said the problem is inequality. He said economic growth has benefited 10 per cent of wage earners in recent decades, while families struggle with rising housing costs, childcare and health. He said his voters in Colorado are concerned that their children will be poorer than previous generations and that it will require the expansion of the children’s tax credit.
“It’s the most progressive change in the U.S. tax code,” Bennet told reporters.