Census: Inequality last year grew, but child poverty dropped
Associated PressIncome inequality in the U.S. increased last year for the first time in more than a decade, but childhood poverty was cut almost in half due to expansion of the federal government’s child tax credit and stimulus payments made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new survey results released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The time period in the latest Current Population Survey covered the third round of pandemic-related stimulus payments and expansions to the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child and Dependent Care Credit. The expansion of the Child Tax Credit helped reduce childhood poverty, as measured by the bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, from 9.7% in 2020 to 5.2% last year. The differences between the two rates is attributable to the pandemic assistance from the federal government, with refundable tax credit expansions keeping 9.6 million people out of poverty and stimulus payments doing the same for 8.9 million people, the Census Bureau report said.
History of this topic
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