The expanded Child Tax Credit was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this year and has authorized a series of payments for American families with children. The first payments went out in July, with others following in August and September, with three more payments to go this year.

The expanded tax credit, according to some studies, has already succeeded in lifting large numbers of Americans out of poverty. The Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University found that the first payment, in July, kept six million children from poverty that month.

The credit applies to families with children under six, who will get $3,600 per child, while for children between six and seventeen, they’ll get $3,000 per child. As for those with college-aged dependents? They’ll get some too, but not as much.

According to BGR’s description of how it works, “If you have a 17-year-old who turns 18 before December 31, your household is not eligible for the monthly child tax credit. That’s because those monthly payments this year, remember, are simply an advance on the full credit. That rest of the credit comes next year, in 2022 — when your child is now 18. Congress’ thinking was that making people wait to get the full credit in 2022 would be onerous since the pandemic is still taking such a toll this year.”

Whether the expanded child tax credit continues is likely a matter of the outcome of current negotiations over the $3.5 trillion spending package proposed by the Democrats, who have proposed extending the credit for several more years.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), whose vote is seemingly required for any version of the reconciliation package to pass, has expressed skepticism about both the $3.5 trillion price tag, and the idea of direct payments without a specific work requirement.

“There’s no work requirements whatsoever,” Manchin said in a CNN interviewer earlier this month, about the Child Tax Credit. “There’s no education requirements whatsoever, for better skill sets… don’t you think, if we’re going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?”

Another Senate Democrat, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, recently made the case to the New Republic for an extension of the credit, which he had pushed for even prior to the pandemic.

“There’s two things I really like about this Child Tax Credit,” Brown told the New Republic. “One, it’s predictable, it’s coming every month. And second, we trust families to make the decision [of] how they’re going to spend the money… there’s no question that Congress’s commitment to seniors—Social Security and Medicare—was transformational in the lives of American people. We’ve not done the same commitment for children until now,” Brown said. “And this will be transformational in the way that Social Security and Medicare [were].”

The next child tax credit payment is scheduled to go out on April 15.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist, and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters