Families deal with payments’ end

For first time in 6 months, no federal child tax credit checks

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For the first time in half a year, families on Friday went without a monthly deposit from the child tax credit — a program that was intended to be part of President Joe Biden’s legacy but has emerged as a flashpoint over who is worthy of government support.

Retiree Andy Roberts of St. Albans, W.Va., relied on the checks to help raise his two grandchildren, whom he and his wife adopted because the birth parents are recovering from drug addiction.

The Robertses are now out $550 a month. That money helped pay for Girl Scouts, ballet and acting lessons and kids’ shoes, which Roberts noted are more expensive than adult shoes. The tax credit, he said, was a “godsend.”

“It’ll make you tighten up your belt, if you’ve got anything to tighten,” Roberts said about losing the payments.

The monthly tax credits were part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, and he had proposed extending them for another full year as part of a measure focused on economic and social programs.

But Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia objected to extending the credit out of concern that the money would discourage people from working and that any additional federal spending would fuel inflation that has already climbed to a nearly 40-year high.

According to IRS data, 305,000 West Virginia children benefited from the expanded credit last month.

Manchin’s opposition in the evenly split Senate derailed Biden’s social spending package and caused the expanded tax credits that were going out in the middle of every month to expire in January. The cancellation whittles family incomes at a time when people are grappling with higher prices.

However, families received only half of their 2021 credit on a monthly basis and the other half will be received when they file their taxes in the coming months. The size of the credit will be cut in 2022, with full payments going only to families who earned enough income to owe taxes, a policy choice that will limit the benefits for the poorest households. And the credits for 2022 will come only once people file their taxes next year.

West Virginia families interviewed by The Associated Press highlighted how their grocery and gasoline bills have increased and said they’ll need to get by with less than a few months ago.

“You’re going to have to learn to adapt,” said Roberts, who worked as an auto dealer for five decades. “You never really dreamed that everything would all of a sudden explode. You go down and get a package of hamburger and it’s $7-8 a pound.”

By the Biden administration’s math, the expanded child tax credit and its monthly payments were a policy success that paid out $93 billion over six months. More than 36 million families received the payments in December. The payments were $300 monthly for each child who was 5 or younger, and $250 for children between 6 and 17.

The Treasury Department declined to address questions about the expiration of the expanded child tax credit, which has become a politically sensitive issue as part of Biden’s nearly $2 trillion economic package that has stalled in the Senate.

Manchin has supported some form of a work requirement for people receiving the payment, out of concern that automatic government aid could cause people to quit their jobs. Yet his primary objection, in a written statement last month, sidestepped that issue as he expressed concerns about inflation and that a one-year extension masked the true costs of a tax credit that could become permanent.

“My Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face,” Manchin said. He added that he was worried about inflation and the size of the national debt.

But Joanna Vance of Beckley, who works for a nonprofit social justice group, said Manchin needs to learn more about his constituents, especially southern communities where thousands of coal mining jobs were lost over the past decade as companies and utilities explore using other energy sources such as natural gas, solar and wind.

“Take a drive through there,” Vance said Friday. “Now they’re just ghost towns. There’s no jobs there. There’s no child care there. There’s no transportation there. And it’s that way for 20 miles in either direction.

“So I understand wanting to have a work requirement. You can’t have a work requirement when it’s not even viable.”

The Census Bureau surveyed the spending patterns of recipients during September and October.

Nearly a third used the credit to pay for school expenses, while about 25% of families with young children spent it on child care. About 40% of recipients said they relied on the money mostly to pay off debt.