Today, LDF sent a letter with other civil rights organizations calling on Congress to pass an expanded child tax credit (CTC) focused on helping children in low-income families as part of any year-end legislation.
Redlining, credit discrimination, lack of investment in education and affordable housing, and other longstanding, systemic problems have limited economic opportunity for families of color and created a persistent wealth gap, particularly between Black and white families. As a result, Black and Latino children are much more likely than white children to live in poverty.
Expanding the CTC is a proven method to reduce child poverty and improve economic mobility, particularly for families of color. The temporary CTC expansion included in the American Rescue Plan Act benefited millions of families, and reduced the child poverty rate to a record low of 5.2 percent, the largest year-to-year drop on record. Black and Latino children experienced the greatest benefits of the CTC expansion. In 2021, the poverty rate fell to 8.3 percent for Black children and to 8.4 percent for Latino children. Most low-income families spent the expanded CTC on basic necessities like food, utilities, rent or mortgage payments, and education. Unfortunately, these gains evaporated when the monthly CTC payments ended.
LDF urged Congress to expand the CTC in order to benefit children in low-income families, and not move forward with any corporate tax breaks unless they are paired with an expansion of the CTC.
Read the full letter here.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
