“As of December 2021, the expanded Child Tax Credit has delivered six monthly payments, reaching over 61 million children in more than 36 million households nationwide. A continuous stream of new research has tracked the impact of these payments. A challenge for policymakers and fellow researchers alike has been how best to understand the key findings emerging from this regularly evolving evidence base.
This research roundup compiles what we know so far about families’ awareness of the new program, who has received it, how families are using it, and how it is impacting their lives. It pulls from a large set of publicly available sources, from the US Census Household Pulse to surveys, focus groups, and other data held about families with children as conducted by polling firms, research organizations, service providers, banking and finance companies, and more. The evidence is reviewed and organized across eight central themes: access; income; poverty; spending; food; financial stress; employment; and equity.”