Children ages 3 to five participate on the Head Start classroom within the Carl and Norma Miller Kid’s Center in Frederick, Maryland, March 13, 2023.
Maansi Srivastava | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Child poverty greater than doubled within the U.S. last yr after financial assistance that supported families throughout the earlier days of the Covid-19 pandemic expired, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The child poverty rate surged to 12.4% in 2022, up from 5.2% within the yr prior, in response to the bureau’s data. The Census Bureau attributed the rise to the expiration of expanded child tax credits and the top of stimulus checks that helped keep people afloat throughout the economic downturn attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As pandemic-era financial assistance fell by the wayside, families were also under significant pressure from inflation. The price of living surged 7.8% from 2021 to 2022, the most important annual increase since 1981, in response to the Census Bureau.
The U.S. had made historic gains in fighting child poverty throughout the pandemic due largely to the expanded tax credits. The kid poverty rate fell 46% in 2021 to the bottom level on record, in response to Census data released last yr.
But the top of key pandemic advantages and surging inflation worn out that progress. Liana Fox, a Census official, told reporters during a press conference Tuesday that child poverty returned to its levels prior to the pandemic.
The general poverty rate also spiked nearly 5%, the primary increase since 2010, in response to the information. The median income of all staff fell 2.2% in 2022 in comparison with the yr prior, in response to the Census.
Political stalemate
The Democratic-led Congress injected nearly $2 trillion of stimulus into the economy through the American Rescue Plan in March 2021. The Democrats passed the relief with out a single Republican vote through a process called budget reconciliation.
The huge aid package significantly increased child tax credits on a brief basis. Working families received $3,600 for kids under the age of 6 and $3,000 for youths ages 6 to 17. The laws also provided a 3rd round of stimulus checks, following earlier relief under the Trump administration.
The expanded child tax credits expired at the top of 2021. Republicans won control of the House within the 2022 midterm elections and Congress has been unable to achieve an agreement to revive the credits.
President Joe Biden, in an announcement Tuesday, blamed the GOP for the lapse of the tax credits and vowed to fight to revive those advantages as he campaigns for a second term in office.
“The rise reported today in child poverty isn’t any accident — it’s the results of a deliberate policy alternative congressional Republicans made to dam help for families with children while advancing massive tax cuts for the wealthiest and largest corporation,” Biden said.
The Census data showing a spike in child poverty doesn’t have in mind the top of several other pandemic advantages this yr. Expanded food advantages lapsed in March, and hundreds of thousands of individuals have been kicked off Medicaid after protections that kept people enrolled in this system expired last spring.
Researchers at Georgetown University estimate greater than 760,000 children have lost Medicaid coverage. The federal government has warned states that many children could have been kicked off despite still being eligible for this system.
The information published by the Census Bureau on Tuesday differs from the official poverty rate, which remained essentially unchanged at 11.5% in 2022.
The official poverty rate looks at people’s income before taxes and doesn’t include stimulus payments and tax credits. The Census data that showed child poverty doubling is an alternate measure that appears at income after taxes and includes these advantages.
