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With no child tax credit, Stormy Johnson skipped her own meals so her kids could eat them.
Johnson, 45, works as a student support specialist at Preston County Schools in Kingwood, West Virginia. Before her monthly enhanced child tax credit payment expires in December, she gets an extra $500 a month for her two children, Violet, 15, and Tristan, 14, with whom she parenting alone.
With no more money, and with prices rising due to inflation, Johnson’s budget was stretched thin.
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“It was definitely a struggle,” Johnson said. “I just make sure my kids have what they need, and honestly, I think that affects my health physically.”
Family is in trouble
The child tax credit was extended in 2021 through President Joe Biden’s Rescue of Americans Plan.
The act increased the credit to $3,000 from $2,000, with a $600 bonus for children under age 6 for tax year 2021. Half of the credit is remitted monthly, which runs from July 2021 through December 2021, as a deposit of $300 for children under 6 years of age and $250 for children ages 6 to 17. total when they pay taxes this year.
Now, five months after the payments stopped working, many families are struggling to make ends meet.
Nearly half of parents who have been tested now say they can’t get enough food to feed their family, according to one Can survey 500 parents from Parents in Action, a non-profit organization. In addition to rising food costs, families are seeing increases in gas prices, childcare and rent increases due to inflation, the survey found.
More than 90% say they are finding it harder to make a living right now and more than 60% are having difficulty meeting their family’s basic needs. In addition to cutting things off, most families said they’ve stopped saving for the future and used emergency savings to sustain themselves.
Others, like Johnson, skip meals so their kids can eat. Her family has also had to cut back on foods like chicken and fresh vegetables because they are too expensive, she said.
“I knew I needed to take care of myself so I could take care of my kids,” Johnson said. “But at any point if you give me the option of doing it for my kids or doing it for myself, especially when it comes to something like food, I’m not going to let my kids go without.”
The future of the child tax credit
It is unclear whether the child tax credit will be reinstated anytime soon.
The monthly payments ended in December when Democrats failed to pass Biden’s $1.75 trillion economic plan, Build Back Better. Since then, little has been done about restoring credit, even as families continue to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, high inflation and increasing economic uncertainty.
