The last year has been a difficult one financially for 44-year-old Rocky Harper. Inflation, especially, has eaten into his paychecks that support his family of four.
Another factor that’s compounded Harper’s money struggles in the last year: No more monthly Child Tax Credit payments. The enhanced credit — which increased the amount of the tax benefit and doled out half the credit in advance in monthly installments in 2021 — expired at the start of 2022 with little political muscle to make the pandemic-era changes permanent. That could change after President Biden included the CTC in his annual budget released this month.
“Those expansions were really exciting to see being revived in the president’s budget. All the pieces are critical – monthly payments and giving families more money, also making those credits refundable so that our lowest-income families can access them,” Joanna Ain, associate director of policy at Prosperity Now, told Yahoo Finance. “That would be huge.