Effects of the Child Tax Credit on poverty, health and well-being

This data snapshot highlights the potential impact of increased, refundable child tax credits.

Tax policies are powerful tools for reducing poverty, promoting financial security and improving population health. The 2021 American Rescue Plan both increased the amount of the federal Child Tax Credit (CTC) and made it fully refundable. The expansion expired at the end of 2021, returning the credit amount to pre-pandemic levels.

Recently, Gov. Mike DeWine released his proposal for Ohio’s biennial budget and called for a refundable $1,000 CTC for eligible families with children 6 years old and under, funded by an increase in cigarette tax revenue.

The federal CTC expansion led to a drop in national child poverty by 55% in 2021, with deep poverty (income less than half of federal poverty level) and extreme poverty (living on $2 or less a day per person) effectively eliminated. After the expansion expired in January 2022, child poverty spiked by 41% nationally. Census data also shows a drop in child poverty rates in Ohio during 2021.

Facts and Figures

Use HPIO graphics and data in your work or share them on your social media accounts. To use the data graphics in your presentations, click here to access the slides on Google Drive, click “File” and then “Download.” This will allow the option to download individual slides or the full deck into PowerPoint slides, a jpg, pdf or other available media files.