Poverty & Family Economics

One in five children live in poverty today.  Economic insecurity in childhood can often lead to lifelong disadvantages, ranging from poor health to low achievement in school.  Federal investments like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit lift millions of children and families out of poverty every year, but yet children still continue to bear the brunt of the recession’s effects.  The good news is that we know how to reduce child poverty.  We can look to the United Kingdom, where the British government halved child poverty in 2009 through a coordinated strategy of investments for children, measures to make work pay, and efforts to increase financial support for families.  We can also look to what has worked here in the US and our success in significantly reducing senior poverty through federal investments like Medicare and Social Security.  We need to build on what works and help working families provide the security that is essential to ensure that all children can fulfill their potential.

Resources


Nearly 300 advocates push Congress to restore improved Child Tax Credit

| December 8, 2022 |

Improved CTC “kept children fed and warm and in their homes” Nearly 300 organizations today urged Congress to lock in tax credits that support


Letter: Enhance the CTC & EITC before end of session

| December 8, 2022 |

Today, First Focus Campaign for Children sent a letter to Congressional leaders signed by over 280 organizations calling on them to take action to


Letter: Pass the Child Poverty Reduction Act

| March 14, 2022 |

Today, the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and First Focus Campaign for Children sent a letter to Congress signed by over 100 organizations


More than 100 organizations back child poverty reduction bill

| March 14, 2022 |

More than 100 national and state-based organizations called on Congress today to establish a national child poverty reduction target that would cut child poverty in half within a


Fact Sheet: Child Poverty in the Wake of COVID-19

| November 23, 2021 |

On September 14, 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau released national child poverty estimates for 2020, including both the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and the


Policy Brief: Child, Youth, and Family Homelessness in the United States: Undercounted & Misunderstood

| November 22, 2021 |

For the past year, 14-year-old Kyah has slept on the floor of a relative’s house, living out of a single room with her mother


Fact Sheet: LIFT the BAR Act

| September 9, 2021 |

Children of immigrants and immigrant children make up one-quarter of all U.S. kids and represent the fastest-growing group of children in America. Despite this,


Statement: SNAP increase will strengthen food security for 15.8 million children

| August 16, 2021 |

Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus Campaign for Children, made the following statement in response to the Biden Administration’s revision of the USDA’s Thrifty


More than 250 advocate groups urge White House to fight child poverty

| April 20, 2021 |

More than 250 national, state, and local organizations are urging the White House to build on the extraordinary child poverty-fighting measures in the latest


The American Rescue plan puts us on a pathway to end child poverty within a generation if (and this is a big if…)

| March 11, 2021 |

Moments ago, President Biden signed legislation that will do more to improve the lives of children than any other law in nearly 25 years.