{"id":60165,"date":"2023-09-12T18:24:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T22:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/child-poverty-in-the-u-s-more-than-doubled-as-pandemic-help-expired\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T18:24:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T22:24:14","slug":"child-poverty-in-the-u-s-more-than-doubled-as-pandemic-help-expired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=60165","title":{"rendered":"Child poverty in the U.S. more than doubled as pandemic help expired"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. politicians made the choice to lift millions of children and families out of poverty in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. But the pandemic-era programs expired in late 2021, and the Census Bureau reported Tuesday that millions of children and families were plunged back into poverty the following year.<\/p>\n

The U.S. poverty rate according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) was 12.4% in 2022, a rise of 4.6 percentage points from 2021. The poverty rate for children more than doubled year over year, from 5.2% to 12.4% \u2014 a record increase.<\/p>\n

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Inflation was a factor, but Census Bureau officials said the spike could largely be attributed to the expiration of pandemic programs: There were no stimulus payments last year, and the enhanced child tax credits expired in 2021.<\/p>\n

Experts, many of whom predicted this would happen, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a direct consequence of the failure to extend the expanded child tax credit and pass the Build Back Better legislation,\u201d Nikhil Goyal, a former senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders on education and children, and author of a new book titled \u201cLive to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty,\u201d said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Goyal also told MarketWatch, \u201cI think a lot of Americans don\u2019t understand or don\u2019t know how much inequality exists in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was clear that the enhanced federal child tax credit, which was included in the American Rescue Plan in response to the pandemic, helped lift millions of children and families out of poverty. The tax credit gave eligible households with children $250 to $300 a month for several months in 2021, helping lift 5.3 million people, including 2.9 million children, out of poverty, according to Census research. In addition, eligible families received three rounds of stimulus payments in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

The Census Bureau releases two poverty measures annually. The official poverty measure compares pretax money income to a poverty threshold adjusted by family size, number of children and ages. The SPM includes income and payroll taxes, tax credits and other benefits like Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and housing subsidies, minus expenses such as medical expenditures, child-support payments and child-care costs.<\/p>\n

The official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5%, translating to 37.9 million people in poverty.<\/p>\n

Other notable figures from the 2022 report:<\/p>\n