BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Working-Family Tax Credits Lift Millions of Mothers — and Children — Out of Poverty
With Mother’s Day approaching and policymakers considering overhauling the tax code this year, it’s worth noting that two key tax credits for low-income workers lifted 2.3 million mothers out of poverty in 2011 (the most recent year available), using a Census Bureau poverty measure that counts tax credits and government benefits.
Our new fact sheet gives state-by-state figures on how many mothers in working families benefit from those credits — the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
The EITC and CTC not only help working parents make ends meet but are proven, powerful tools for reducing child poverty — lifting 4.9 million children out of poverty in 2011 — and advancing children’s long-term well-being. Children of EITC recipients, for example, tend to do better in school, are likelier to attend college, and earn more as adults, research shows.
