What would have happened without the CTC? We can get an idea from the families who have not yet been able to access it. One of the parents in the survey told us, "The CTC has completely changed our lives! We are just now finally getting out from under water." The CTC is making a big difference for these families. Many parents-especially mothers-have lost their jobs due to either layoffs or being forced to stay home with young children when child care programs closed, and many families have struggled to regain financial stability. Since the beginning of the pandemic, RAPID data has shown that over a third of American families with young children have experienced material hardship, which we define as difficulty meeting basic needs like food and housing. When families are able to pay for their basic needs and essentials, it reduces the amount of financial hardship that they experience. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ParentsTogether Hand drawn signs to celebrate new monthly Child Tax Credit payments and urge Congress to make them permanent. For American families of all income levels, and especially for lower-income families, the CTC has meant the difference between meeting and not meeting basic needs.
But many middle-income (68 percent) and higher-income (56 percent) families in the survey also used the CTC to cover these essentials. Among the lowest-income families in the survey (those with a 2019 household income below 200 percent of the federal poverty line), 83 percent reported spending their CTC payments on basic needs and essential bills. RAPID survey data showed that low-income parents were the most likely to use the CTC to keep their families afloat. One parent in the survey told us that the CTC has "made it so I'm not worried about money on a daily basis," Another parent said, "The payments have been the only thing to keep me slightly afloat." The CTC is helping parents to keep their families fed, housed and cared for despite a multitude of pandemic-related struggles. The vast majority of these families-72 percent-reported using CTC payments for either basic needs like food, housing and utilities, or for essential bills like car payments, credit card payments and child care. Since its start in July, 76 percent of the families in the RAPID survey have received CTC payments. During this season of goodwill, we want to pause and celebrate the support that the country is finally showing to young children and their parents through the CTC. The RAPID survey has generated solid evidence that the CTC is making a meaningful difference in the lives of American families with young children.
Helping them keep afloat full#
December marks six months since the government began providing the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to American families and full five months of RAPID data showing that it's working. But this holiday season, we too are inspired to focus on the good.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development (RAPID) research team has been collecting data across time from a national sample of parents with young children to see how COVID-19 is affecting American families (spoiler alert-most of the news is not good: Financial hardship has risen during the pandemic and it's negatively affecting the well-being of both parents and their children). For a few precious weeks, we as a nation are proactively and intentionally shifting our collective focus to good. We are finding ways to gather with family and friends, and we are finding ways to give-gifts of time, forgiveness, compassion and hope. And this year, even the most tired and drained among us are digging deep, setting aside the "bad stuff," and finding ways to celebrate with those we love. But we've now reached the holiday season-a time of hope, goodwill and giving that promises a brief respite during an extremely difficult time. In recent months, reading the morning news has tested even the most optimistic among us-the pandemic continues to rage, racism and sexism are center stage and the Earth is dying one extreme weather event at a time.
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