With the checks for the expanded child tax credits under President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan set to head out to eligible parents in less than a month, there has been plenty of chatter of late regarding the future of these cash payments.

If a recent poll by Hill-HarrisX is any indication, it appears that Americans are split on whether these credits should eventually increase. And whether they should be fully refundable. Just over half, or fifty-one percent, agreed with that stance. Moreover, fifty-three percent stated that they are against sending the monthly payments, which are scheduled through the end of the year.

Know that this newest cash windfall—seen by some as an unofficial fourth coronavirus stimulus check—is from Biden’s highly ambitious $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that enabled the expansion of the child tax credits, which were generally reserved for families to claim a credit of up to $2,000 for children under the age of seventeen.

Now, however, parents can collect 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—meaning that a $250 or a $300 cash payment for each child will head into the bank accounts of eligible parents every month of this year.

White House officials have stated that the reach of the expanded credits will be expansive. The credits will benefit more than sixty-five million children—or nearly ninety percent of children in the United States.

And if the benefit continues beyond 2021, which the White House and Democratic lawmakers already have proposed, it has the potential to reduce child poverty by forty percent, according to a recent study conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Biden has proposed extending the child tax credit through the year 2025 in his nearly $2 trillion American Families Plan.

“With two parents, two kids, that’s $7,200 in the pockets you’re getting to help take care of your family,” Biden said in his address to Congress in late April.

“And that will help more than sixty-five million children and help cut child care poverty in half—and we can afford it,” he added.

In a recent press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also touted the potential benefits to the nation’s children.

“If passed, the families of tens of millions of children will continue to get regular payments,” she said.

Furthermore, Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, recently introduced a bill that seeks to permanently extend the child tax credit.

“For our economy to fully recover from this pandemic, we must finally acknowledge that workers have families, and caregiving responsibilities are real,” he said.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-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