Loss of Child Tax Credit Advance Payments Tied to Higher Food Insecurity

FRIDAY, Oct. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Food insufficiency among U.S. households with children increased after they stopped receiving monthly advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments in January 2022, according to a study published online Oct. 21 in JAMA Network Open.

Allison Bovell-Ammon, from the Boston Medical Center, and colleagues used data from the Household Pulse Survey (592,044 respondents) to assess whether the expiration of monthly CTC payments in January 2022 was associated with changes in food insufficiency in U.S. households with children.

The researchers found that during the survey wave just before CTC expiration (Dec. 29, 2021, to Jan.10, 2022), unadjusted household food insufficiency was 12.7 percent among households with children. In the survey wave following the first missed CTC monthly payment (Jan. 15, 2022), 13.6 percent of households with children reported food insufficiency, which further increased to 16.0 percent by late June and early July 2022. Compared to the reference survey wave, the estimated 3.2 percentage point increase in food insufficiency measured from June 29 to July 11, 2022, represents a 25 percent increase among households with children.

“The findings of this study suggest that there was an increase in food insufficiency among households with children after they stopped receiving monthly CTC payments,” the authors write. “Given the well-documented associations between inability to afford food and poor health outcomes across the life span, Congress should consider swift action to reinstate this policy.”