The U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, March 2017. Poverty is a particularly serious problem for children, who suffer negative effects for the rest of their lives after living in poverty for even a short time. Beyond consequences for individual children, child poverty negatively affects the entire nation through increased expenditures on criminal justice and healthcare, as well as through lost revenue and economic output. One way to combat child poverty is through increasing a family’s cash income, which is critical for a family’s economic security.
Parents and caregivers need cash income to provide for their children by paying for rent and transportation to work, as well as by securing goods and services to improve their children’s development and educational achievement. The U.S. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) supports comprehensive tax reform and has completed an analysis of a number of critical tax policies that currently support children and families. Through the analysis it developed policy recommendations that are divided into four sections: (1) Credits, (2) Deductions, (3) Savings Accounts, and (4) Other Opportunities. These policy recommendations could do more to elevate children out of poverty. In addition, since deductions and savings accounts typically favor high-income families, while direct subsidies and refundable tax credits better meet the needs of low-income families, these strategies should be paired together to meet the needs of all families.