It’s Time for a Child Allowance With No Strings Attached

During the pandemic, the expanded Child Tax Credit was a lifeline for millions of families. However, I was one of the many who couldn’t benefit from it.

Why? At 15, I gave my baby to family members. But because the adoption was never finalized, I actually ended up owing child support — and only found out after it had compounded. Because of that debt, I was unfairly denied the Child Tax Credit for the children I later had with my husband.

Today I have a Master’s degree, I’m a second-year law student, and my arrears are paid. But our years of struggle have left a lasting impact on my children. They missed out on the help they needed during their formative years — a loss that can never be fully compensated.

We need the Child Tax Credit to be fully expanded, paid monthly, and made available to all children who need it, regardless of their parents’ and caretakers’ situations. It should be redefined as a Child Allowance. Its purpose should be to help children, not to punish parents.

Most parents collect a Child Tax credit payment annually — but only if you make enough to pay federal income taxes. During the pandemic, however, the credit was raised and paid out monthly to nearly all parents and caregivers, regardless of their income level.

This system wasn’t perfect — it left out families like mine. Still, the expanded Child Tax Credit cut our country’s high child poverty rate in half, reduced hunger, and allowed families to stay current with bills and even save. But when lawmakers refused to continue this historically effective expansion, child poverty spiked back up.

Due to this deep disinvestment in our future, families across the country are unnecessarily struggling to make ends meet. Black, brown, low-income, and female-led families suffer disproportionately from this systemic disinvestment. Cash assistance has been slashed, programs underfunded, and families left to fend for themselves without a safety net.

We need a fundamental shift in how we think about supporting our nation’s children. Children aren’t only the most vulnerable demographic in any nation — they’re also our future. Properly investing in their health and well-being is an investment in the health and well-being of the country.

When children’s basic needs are met, they thrive. They’re healthier and happier and achieve more lifetime education and career success.

A defining 2019 study by the National Academy of Sciences found that when families have enough resources to take care of their children’s basic human needs, children benefit educationally, have better physical and mental health, and earn greater earnings into adulthood. But when they’re denied such support, the opposite is true.

It’s time to stop risking our children’s lives and futures. We must agree as a nation that our children’s well-being is a national priority — and an adequate, monthly, available-to-all Child Allowance is the way to achieve it. That means not just bringing back the expanded Child Tax Credit, but making sure families like mine aren’t left out.

I volunteer as a parent advocate with groups like the Automatic Benefit for Children (ABC) Coalition. They call for a robust Child Allowance that’s available to all children — with no strings attached.

When this principle is honored, we honor the rights of children to have their basic needs met even when their parents or caregivers are struggling like I was. Our children deserve nothing less.

The U.S. lags behind the rest of the world in providing a Child Allowance. According to a 2020 report from UNICEF, out of 180 countries, 108 have some form of a legislated Child Allowance. It’s time for the United States to join them.

A Child Allowance would be an investment in our kids and families —  and an investment in our nation’s well-being. This is common-sense policy, and it’s time we got serious about it.

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