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Shaefer says drop child tax credit in favor of universal, direct investment in American children

October 21, 2016

Although the current child tax credit helps many American families, families in which parents are unemployed don’t realize this benefit. Luke Shaefer and his colleagues are proposing a different approach: getting rid of the tax credit and instead providing $250 every month ($3,000/year) for every child in America. This child allowance – like Social Security – would guarantee a minimum level of well-being while cutting child poverty by over 40 percent, the researchers say. Given current bipartisan support for reducing U.S. poverty, Shaefer says: “We might be coming into a moment where there could be some common-sense policy changes. There is a policy window that wasn’t open a year or two years ago.” A paper on this proposed policy will be published by Russell Sage.

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