Expanding the Child Tax Credit would cut child poverty nearly in half

Expanding the Child Tax Credit Would Cut Child Poverty Nearly in Half

Policymakers on both sides of the aisle are currently pushing for reforms to the tax code. As part of this effort, legislators have proposed multiple ideas for strengthening the Child Tax Credit (CTC), a program designed to support families raising children in the United States. A recent proposal introduced by Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) would expand access to the CTC to those at the bottom of the income distribution and boost the value of the CTC for all credit-eligible families. In this brief, we present results from a simulation of the Bennet-Brown bill.

Key Findings:

  • The Bennet-Brown proposal would cut the total poverty rate in the U.S. substantially from 14.3% to 11.3%.
  • The proposal would have an even greater impact on child poverty, cutting it from 16.1% to 8.9%, or nearly in half.
  • The share of children living in deep poverty (with family incomes below half the poverty line) would also be cut in half, and extreme poverty among children (defined as having less than $2 a day per person) would be virtually eliminated.
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Technical note: Estimates in this brief are based on the 2016 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, which pertains to the calendar year 2015.

Suggested Citation:
Wimer, Christopher and Sophie Collyer. 2017. Expanding the Child Tax Credit would cut child poverty nearly in half. Poverty and Social Poverty Brief, vol. 1, no. 3. New York: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.

Published on October 24, 2017