Families got up to $3,600 per child in 2021, with up to half paid monthly

For one year, the federal government sent millions of eligible families with children a regular monthly payment. The American Rescue Plan raised the maximum Child Tax Credit for 2021 to $3,600 for each child under 6 and $3,000 for each child 6 through 17.

Instead of waiting for tax time, eligible families could receive up to half of the credit in advance: generally $300 a month per young child and $250 per older child from July through December 2021. The IRS sent payments automatically to many households based on prior tax returns, by direct deposit or mailed check. People the IRS did not already have on file could register or claim the full credit when they filed a 2021 tax return. Families claimed any remaining credit when they filed.

The Census Bureau found child poverty, counting government aid, fell to 5.2% in 2021, the lowest on record. The expansion ended after 2021, and the rate more than doubled to 12.4% in 2022.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro had pushed a bigger, monthly child credit since 2003. The 2021 credit was modeled on the American Family Act she wrote with Reps. Suzan DelBene and Ritchie Torres and Sens. Michael Bennet and Sherrod Brown, and President Joe Biden made it part of his American Rescue Plan. Democrats passed it without Republican votes, as emergency relief paid for by borrowing, and Biden signed it on March 11, 2021.