Several federal pandemic relief programs that allocated funds to most U.S. families have especially boosted the fortunes of low-income families with children. According to a number of studies, programs that include stimulus checks, increased food stamps, child tax credits and expanded unemployment insurance are primarily responsible for reducing the nation’s child poverty rate by half.  A Colombia University study found that child poverty rates  fell from 14.2 percent to 5.6 percent, a decline of 61 percent.

That’s good news for millions of struggling working families. The bad news is that most of these programs offered one-time payments. Moreover, recently expanded monthly child tax credit benefits are due to expire next year unless reauthorized by Congress.

Progressives maintain that dramatic cuts in poverty support the view that poverty levels reflect political choices — and government programs are capable of reducing economic need.  Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Zach Tilly, policy associate with the Children’s Defense Fund, who explains how the programs work, how families have benefited, and the challenges ahead to maintain the reduction in child poverty.

ZACH TILLEY: Based on the studies we’ve seen so far – the anti-poverty provisions that have been adopted in the last year through the American Rescue Plan and in previous Covid-related legislation – have cut the poverty rate nationwide substantially and the child poverty rate in half. The pieces that have been responsible for that reduction are the enhanced unemployment benefits; the increase to the SNAP program – there’s a 15 percent boost to SNAP; the second and third rounds of economic impact payments which passed in December 2020 and then the third round that passed in March in the American Rescue Plan and then the enhanced child tax credit.

There are a few other programs accounted for in these estimates: smaller boosts to the WIC Program – that is the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children; and the LIHEAP – the Low Income Energy Assistance Program – are also included, but those are smaller programs with smaller effects.

It’s very clear that the programs that have had the biggest effect on poverty are those with the fewest strings attached and the fewest administrative hoops to jump through.

MELINDA TUHUS: Do you know, by any chance, when the federal child tax credit started?

ZACH TILLEY: I think the child tax credit first showed up in the 1970s. It reached prominence in the 1990s after welfare reform. It, along with the earned income tax credit, were touted as a new way to get money to families that were conditioned on work. The interesting thing and the important thing about what’s happened most recently in the American Rescue Plan is that the work requirement has been taken out of it. So, it used to be the case that you had to earn at least $2,500, but in actuality closer to $20,000 or $30,000 to be eligible for the full child tax credit benefit. The result of that was that 23 million children being excluded from the full value of the child tax credit just because their family incomes weren’t high enough, and that meant the program wasn’t reaching the kids who needed the benefit the most. And that changed with the American Rescue Plan, which now requires zero dollars in income to receive the child tax credit, which is great and part of the reason that it achieved such a robust poverty reduction.

MELINDA TUHUS: Wow, I didn’t realize all that. Can you say which – maybe it’s all – of these enhancements are not necessarily going to last more than a year or two unless they’re put into law. Is that right?

ZACH TILLEY: That’s right. The long and short of it is that all of the programs that are responsible for this unprecedented one-year drop in poverty are going to come off the books, and unless we do more to make things like the child tax credit permanent we could be in a situation where even with a post-pandemic economic recovery, the poverty rates bounce back in 2022.

MELINDA TUHUS: Can you give me any examples of how this additional assistance has helped the poorest families? What has been different and better for them because of this assistance?

ZACH TILLEY: Sure. So, I can speak most directly to the experience families have had with the child tax credit. The first payment was made on July 15 and so families began to receive $300 for each child age 0-6 and $250 per child age 6-17, and the early returns are that families are spending this money on basic needs – on food and rent and clothes for their kids and school supplies and all these things, but we’ve also seen stories of families who are using the money to do things together they haven’t been able to do during the pandemic or maybe longer because of financial constraints. And we’re just hearing lots of stories about parents having some financial stress lifted.

For more information, visit the Children’s Defense Fund at childrensdefense.org.