The advance payments from the new and expanded Child Tax Credits that have been issued over the past two months have the potential to raise the average monthly income for families receiving federal housing assistance by nearly forty percent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

“The average monthly income for HUD-assisted families with children is approximately $1,460, or $8,760 over six months,” the report states. “On average, Advance Child Tax Credit payments will increase monthly income by $550 among these families.”

CTC Benefiting Low-Income Families

Writing on the website HUD User, the report’s authors Veronica Helms Garrison and Janet Li added: “The Child Tax Credit will directly impact millions of families receiving rental assistance from HUD. Among the nearly 4.6 million HUD-assisted households in 2020, approximately 1.6 million, or thirty-four percent, are families with children.”

They continued: “Ninety-one percent of these HUD-assisted families with children are single-parent households, and sixty-two percent have two or more children. Overall, approximately 3.3 million children live in HUD-assisted households, including around 897,000 children under the age of six.”

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in the spring, has enabled the federal government to give eligible parents as much as $3,600 per year for a child under the age of six and up to $3,000 for children between ages six and seventeen. Broken down, this means that a $250 or a $300 payment for each child will be direct deposited each month through the end of the year.

Positive Impact on Children

Despite being only two months into the disbursement of the funds, it appears that the tax credits are having a great impact on millions of children.

“Sixty-one million children across America are benefiting from the advance Child Tax Credit, helping families put food on the table and meet the needs of the next generation,” the Treasury Department’s Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

In addition, a survey from ParentsTogether Action suggested that all it took was one payment from the credits to reduce the financial anxiety of fifty-six percent of American families. More than half of the respondents agreed that the direct cash payments were a “huge deal” and another forty percent said the money was “helpful” to the overall family budget.

Another bout of recent research released by the Census Bureau showed that parents who have received the credits reported less trouble paying for groceries and basic household expenses. It also noted that approximately ten percent of American households with children sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat over the past week—the lowest percentage registered since the pandemic began a year and a half ago.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters