The Build Back Better Bill would be a game changer to many parents all around America, according to new reports.
Aside from the provisions ranging from paid leave to funding for universal pre-K, that would be especially beneficial to low- and middle-income households, the biggest factor would be the expanded child tax credit.
The bill extends the enhanced CTC through 2022. The credit was increased this year to be worth up to $3,000 per child 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6.
Read more: Latest House Bill Extends Child tax Credit fully as refundable. How will this benefit Americans?
Families have also received half of the credit in monthly payments since July. BBB makes the expansion amounts advanceable in monthly payments for the entire year.
BBB would also permanently make the credit fully refundable, so families do not need any earned income to receive the money.
The one-year increase in the credit amount is projected to reduce child poverty by more than 40%, as compared to what it would have been without the expansion, according to CBPP.
Read more: Build Back Better Plan to Expand Child Tax Credit for a Year!
This year, it has reduced the number of households facing food insecurity and lifted millions out of poverty.
Build Back Better includes funding to help low- and some middle-income families with children under 6 get affordable child care by at licensed providers by subsidizing some or all of the cost.
Subsidies are based on state median income and family size, but most families would pay no more than 7% of their yearly income for care under the bill by 2025.
Read more: December Child Tax Credit Payment Will Be Check. Avail Now to Get Benefits.
Build Back Better would also cover the federal share of the cost of free universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds. Democrats estimate this would help around 6 million children.
Black and Latino families, who are more likely than white families to live in poverty and not have access to affordable child care, will benefit the most from Build Back Better.
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“The bill as a whole would reduce poverty substantially, and especially child poverty,” Kris Cox, deputy director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
Build Back Better has not been voted on by the Senate and will likely change before it is passed.